Melania Trump Slams Ex-Aide For ‘Spitefully Edited’ Recording About Her 'Perception of Christmas'

In the summer of 2018, Melania Trump was secretly recorded by her then-aide voicing expletive-laden frustration at needing to perform traditional first lady duties, such as preparing for Christmas.

Melania Trump has accused a former White House aide of having “spitefully edited” a secret recording of her to make it seem like she didn’t care much about Christmas.

“Christmas is an important time for me, my family, and the American people, and my devotion to the holiday is personal and profoundly serious,” the ex-first lady said in a statement first obtained by Breitbart News.

According to Melania Trump, ex-aide Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who was also her friend and confidante at the time, “secretly recorded” several of their conversations.

Wolkoff, whose tell-all book, Melania & Me, came out on September 1, 2020, proceeded to edit and release these conversations “to create the perception that Christmas is not significant to me,” the wife of the 45th POTUS claimed.

https://t.co/nPR1qACNBR pic.twitter.com/kfaUFf79SO

— Office of Melania Trump (@OfficeofMelania) September 21, 2022

According to Melania Trump, Wolkoff “deleted” a part of their conservation dating to the summer of 2018 in which she “expressed hope to reunite families split across at the southern border,” adding that it “exposes her malicious intent.”

The ex-first lady explained that she felt compelled to “personally set the record straight because the mainstream media has failed to provide context for these misleading exchanges.”

Appearing on the Anderson Cooper 360 show on October 1, 2020 to promote her memoir, Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship With the First Lady, Wolkoff gave CNN a recording that captured Donald Trump’s spouse saying:

“I put — I’m working like an a** — my a** off at Christmas stuff that, you know, who gives a f**k about Christmas stuff and decoration? But I need to do it, right?”

Melania Trump was also heard expressing her frustration at being criticized for her husband's policy of separating families who illegally crossed the southern border.

Wolkoff later explained that after her relations with the first lady soured, she began recording their conversations. The Trump Justice Department filed a civil suit against Wolkoff in October 2019, alleging breach of a nondisclosure agreement, which the Biden Justice Department dropped in February 2021.

Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady, is a TRUE account of what REALLY happened (backed up with EVIDENCE) during the planning of Trump's 58th Presidential Inauguration and then in the East Wing of the White House as Melania's Senior Advisor. pic.twitter.com/Iua3rJIoYp

— Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (@SWinstonWolkoff) January 20, 2022

In a series of tweets, Wolkoff slammed Melania Trump’s statement on September 21 as “mean fiction” and accused her of “capitalizing on my name to take advantage of the American people.”

Melania’s Statement about me is mean fiction pic.twitter.com/9UEv3Wjuso

— Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (@SWinstonWolkoff) September 20, 2022

“She has nothing better to do than to impugn my integrity and lie again in order to sell some ornaments,” Wolkoff wrote, adding that she “didn’t lie.”

This was a reference to an earlier report by Fox News that Melania Trump would be selling limited-edition handcrafted Christmas ornaments and related Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to celebrate the season that she says is "filled with hope" and "inspired by the American experience and spirit." A portion of the proceeds were to go towards funding scholarships for children in foster care.