White House hits back hard against claims of Trump and Melania's separation: 'Solely to garner clicks'
WASHINGTON, DC: The White House is hitting back hard following speculation suggesting that first lady Melania Trump might be done with her husband, President Donald Trump.
According to Radar Online, Melania has barely set foot in the White House since Trump returned to the White House. She’s reportedly spent less than four weeks there.
Her most recent outing was when she showed up at the Army’s 250th birthday celebration.
White House hits back after Michael Wolff's claims on '60 Minutes'
Author Michael Wolff recently reiterated claims about the alleged frost between Donald and Melania Trump.
“I asked someone who's very close to them, and I said, 'so what's going on?'” he said during an interview with '60 Minutes Australia'. “And this person looked at me like I was a real dunce and then said, 'she hates his f------ guts.'”
The White House, of course, wasn’t thrilled with that quote and issued what Wolff cheekily described as “an old-fashioned non-denial denial.”
“It is unprofessional and irresponsible for 60 Minutes Australia to tarnish and defame the reputation of the First Lady of the United States. The details of Mrs Trump's personal life and family should be respected as private. One must consider the potential harm caused by creating unfounded narratives solely to garner clicks," the White House said in its official response.
Melania Trump's vanishing act
Melania Trump’s near-total disappearance from the public eye has been raising eyebrows across Washington, DC, and beyond. Since her husband Donald's second term began, her public appearances have been few and far between.
There was her speech against cyberbullying in March, followed by her presence at the White House Easter Egg Roll, and then an April trip to the funeral of Pope Francis—but that’s about it.
Sources claimed that she “vanishes from view for weeks at a time, holing up in Trump Tower in Manhattan or in Florida.”
First lady historian Katherine Jellison even compared her reserve to a long-forgotten presidential spouse. “We haven’t seen such a low-profile first lady since (President Truman's wife) Bess Truman, and that’s going way back in living human memory, nearly 80 years ago," Jellison said.
Wolff was asked why Melania might be keeping her distance.
“Well, other than the fact he has a long history of relationships with other women, porn stars and the like, and that he's not a very nice guy and he doesn't listen to anyone ever, so I doubt if he would listen to his wife... should I go on?” he alleged.
Are Melania and Donald Trump living separate lives?
Despite the rumors, not everyone’s convinced there’s trouble in the White House. First lady expert Anita McBride insists that the unconventional Trump dynamic is just normal for them.
“I think it's a marriage that works for them,” she said. “Maybe it's not your definition of a happy marriage, maybe it might not be mine, but it's certainly theirs.”
Whether Melania’s in New York, Florida, or wherever, McBride said that’s just how they roll.
“Whether she's in New York and he's here, or she's in Florida and he's in New York, their life is working pretty well for them. So I think any attempt to try and say they're unhappy or that they're apart from each other all the time, I think that's a lot of wasted words. I really do," she explained.
But Wolff isn't buying it. “These are two people who live separate lives. Everything is separate. They are not together," he insists.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has previously slammed Wolff for spewing unverified claims.
“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s**t and has been proven to be a fraud,” Cheung told the Daily Beast after the site published excerpts from Wolff’s latest Trump tell-all, 'All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America'.
“He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain," Cheung added.
