Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and adviser to first lady Melania Trump, describes in her new book what it was like when they met for lunch on the day the Access Hollywood tape with President Trump bragging about grabbing women went public.
The recording was leaked in October 2016, ahead of the presidential election. Winston Wolkoff writes in Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady that she thought Trump would be “in tears” when she arrived at lunch, but instead she was “radiant” and “smiling. It was as if nothing happened.” Winston Wolkoff said she tried to lighten the mood by saying, “How many times have you heard the word ‘p—y’ and ‘president’ in the same sentence,” and together they “burst out laughing.”
The first lady “knows who she married,” Winston Wolkoff said, and “knew what she was getting into.” The Trump family runs on “deceit” and “deception,” she said, and it’s “amateur hour” at the White House, which is “really frightening for the country.”
In her book, Winston Wolkoff writes that Melania Trump made derogatory remarks about Ivanka Trump and other members of the family, calling them “snakes.” When asked by ABC News, Winston Wolkoff would not confirm or deny reports that she surreptitiously recorded conversations with the first lady, but did assert that she “can back up everything that’s in the book 100 percent … and Donald and Melania know that.”