Melania Trump’s former chief of staff has called BS on President Donald Trump’s claim that he was blindsided by the first lady’s surprise Jeffrey Epstein statement.
On Thursday, Melania, 55, shocked the world when, seemingly unprompted, she conducted a White House address, denying all but casual ties to Epstein and his jailed accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
The president, 79, told MS NOW after the short address that he did not know about his wife’s statement ahead of time, adding that “she didn’t know [Epstein]” before hanging up. An official said White House staffers were also blindsided.
But Trump’s former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who later became Melania’s chief of staff, trashed the claim during an interview with CNN.
“I’m going to say, I call BS on our president saying he knew nothing about it, because at the very least, I imagine she would have given him a heads up if she had sent an advisory out yesterday,” Grisham said, referring to the tip off Melania gave to the press on Wednesday.
Asked if there was any way the president could block the statement from going ahead if Melania signaled her intent, she added, “Absolutely not.”
Grisham, who left her job as White House press secretary without ever having briefed the press, was asked by The Lead’s Phil Mattingly if she was surprised by the timing of the first lady’s statement.
She said, “No. Melania Trump thinks about everything she does and she thinks about it for a very long time. And she does things very strategically. And she knew full well that walking out there into the White House residence, behind that podium like that, would make absolute waves.”
She theorized about what might have prompted the decision, telling CNN’s chief domestic correspondent: “And so, she chose this time—again, I don‘t know why. Perhaps, again, it’s a story or she just got an inquiry or she saw something obscure that nobody else did see. And it just made her upset. But she chose this very specifically and she definitely thought on it for a few days.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” Melania, who married Trump in 2005, began her statement. “I have never been friends with Epstein,” she continued, adding that she and the president sometimes encountered him because of overlapping social circles.
She also called on Congress to facilitate a public hearing for Epstein survivors.
Melania brushed off a 2002 email between her and Ghislaine Maxwell, calling it “casual correspondence.”
In the email, which she also called “trivial,” she said nice things about a picture of Epstein that appeared in a New York Magazine feature.
That is the same feature in which her husband heaped praise on the disgraced financier, who was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.
“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said.
Melania also denied rumors that she was a victim of Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, or that he introduced her to Trump.
