Melania trump

On April 9, Melania Trump held a lone press conference. She showed up in a charcoal suit, delivered a speech and turned to exit, runway style, without pausing. Melania doesn’t take questions from the press. The facts, according to Melania: Jeffrey Epstein had not introduced her to Donald Trump. She met her husband, “by chance, at a New York City party, in 1998.” She and her husband were acquainted with Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein, but this was “common in New York City and Palm Beach.” She had engaged Maxwell in polite “casual correspondence” over email. That was the extent of the relationship. “I am not Epstein’s victim,” she said somberly. White House staff were perplexed. Why had the presser been called?

Melania Trump’s bombshell statement yesterday on the Jeffrey Epstein affair needed subtitles. As she spoke it was all so odd. There had to be a subtext. Her choice of words and tone was so loaded it felt like there was another shadow statement underneath, and her shock appearance was just act one of this drama, prefiguring a much bigger statement to come. It was so astonishing for her to deny allegations that most of us had never heard about. We were left wondering what she was really trying to say. Her statement raised questions that hadn’t ever been asked before, and now we’re all wondering what the answers are When she said that the rumors about her "need to stop," did she mean the rumors about Trump and Epstein, or did she mean something else?

As America stayed inside at the weekend, terrified and frozen, the White House hosted its own movie night: the first-ever screening of Melania, an insider-access documentary about the First Lady, directed by the disgraced Brett Ratner. This film that old-school Hollywood wouldn’t touch with a barge-pole is coming to theaters everywhere on Friday, whether you see it or not. The Hollywood Reporter, which met the devil at a crossroads in exchange for access, posted exclusive photos of the event, which included “black-tied VIPs, monogrammed popcorn tubs and a military band playing movie tunes”, as well as bespoke black-and-white cookies bearing Melania’s name. The band actually played “Melania’s Waltz,” a special composition for the film.

“Here ve go again” says Melania Trump to the camera at the start of the new trailer for MELANIA – a feature documentary on the First Lady from Jeff Bezos’s Amazon Studios. This House of Cards-style breaking of the fourth wall seems to promise a certain intrigue in the movie to come.  The trailer, which is soundtracked an Amadeus-esque orchestral score, has a few eyebrow-raising moments, like when the First Lady interrupts her husband’s rehearsal for a speech. “My proudest legacy will be that of peacemaker” says Trump. “Peacemaker and unifier,” she corrects him. She also teases Trump (who she calls “Mr. President”) about not having watched one of his broadcasts. “Ya, I will watch it on the news.

Hunter Biden re-entered the political limelight last month on 28-year-old Andrew Callaghan's podcast, filling three hours with stories from his life, including his battle with drug addiction. Those three hours were apparently not enough. In a subsequent episode last week, Biden spent another hour giving his two cents about Jeffrey Epstein. That video has wracked up 1.3 million views and has landed him a $1 billion lawsuit from the First Lady. Melania is kindly asking Hunter to apologize for and retract the following statements: "Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep" and "Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania, that’s how Melania and the First Lady and the President met... Yeah, according to Michael Wolff.

During a frantic Tuesday news cycle – where President Trump accused President Obama of high treason and Congress planned to recess early to avoid making any Epstein-related decisions – a smaller item caught Cockburn’s gimlet eye (while he was drinking a midday gimlet on the patio). House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee approved an amendment that would rename the opera house at the Trump-run Kennedy Center “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.” Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho said that was an “excellent way to recognize” the First Lady’s “support and commitment to promoting the arts.

The activities of First Lady Melania Trump have been the subject of much discussion in Cockburn’s circles during her husband’s second term. Where is she? What is she up to? For the most powerful spouse in the world, she keeps an extraordinarily low profile. But now a new theory has emerged: she’s been spying for Ukraine. Over the weekend, an X user named “Kate from Kharkiv” posted a photo of Melania wearing a blue blazer bearing the Ukrainian trident insignia. Melania is also wearing one of her signature wide-brimmed hats, which shield her eyes from enemy view. “Agent Melania Trumpenko,” the caption read. https://twitter.

No, President Trump wasn’t referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin when he talked at a White House luncheon today about a “stupid guy” and a “knucklehead.” But he did make it clear that his long-standing bromance with the Kremlin’s big cheese has turned out to be unrequited, much to his distress.   Trump lamented that Putin’s talk about peace was so much rodomontade, amounting to more than a “nice phone call” followed by a bunch of missiles lobbed at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. It was Melania, he said, who had noted to him the inconsistency between Putin’s words and deeds. Perhaps Melania, more than anyone else, injected some iron into Trump’s previously anemic posture towards Moscow.

Every morning, a swarm of black SUVs deliver a 6’ 7” freshman to classes at NYU's Stern School of Business. The journey from Trump Tower takes about 20 minutes, which is enough time for 19-year-old Barron Trump to check his cryptocurrency wallets before settling into the back row of a lecture hall, flanked by Secret Service agents in hoodies and jeans, attempting (and failing) to blend in with students. The scene captures a peculiar tension in the youngest Trump's coming of age: between assimilating and standing out. While his classmates stress over student loans, unpaid internships and how to make their weekly grocery budget go further, Barron has assembled a digital fortune independently of his parents.

Washington, DC What’s the best way to celebrate America’s birthday? For President Trump, it was a swift round of golf at his course in Sterling, Virginia, followed by a victory lap to sign his “One Big, Beautiful Bill” on the South Lawn of the White House. Two B-2 bombers, flanked by F-22 Raptors flew over the White House as the US Marine band played “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Military men in short-sleeved shirts – their wives in flowery sundresses – were dotted on white chairs around gingham-clad tables. It was a quintessentially American affair. “That is some sight,” said Trump, of what he described as a “big, beautiful plane,” after he walked up to the shaded podium on the South Portico with his First Lady.

There’s something admirable about Melania Trump’s commitment to doing absolutely nothing. While America obsesses over her husband’s latest provocations, the First Lady has opted for absence – and turned it into a pretty lucrative enterprise. Consider this month’s rare emergence from her self-imposed exile. As rumors swirled that Donald’s vendetta against Harvard stemmed from the university rejecting their son Barron, Melania was finally compelled to issue a public statement. The denial was characteristically terse: Barron never applied to Harvard, and all such assertions are “completely false.