Melania Trump Slams Former Adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s Book As ‘An Attempt To Be Relevant’

In a new White House blog post, Melania Trump hit back at her former friend and ex-adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who had released a tell-all book about the first lady in September.

Trump began Friday’s blog post as a discussion of her time as first lady and her work on her anti-bullying campaign “Be Best,” but the post quickly turned into an outlet for her to air her grievances about Winston Wolkoff’s book Melania and Me, and her secretly recorded tapes that were recently released of the frustrated first lady complaining about Christmas decorations and criticism of the child separation policy at the border of the United States and Mexico.

“We all know that more often than not, information that could be helpful to children is lost in the noise made by self-serving adults,” Trump said, calling out the media’s coverage of the new memoir. “I have most recently found this to be the case as major news outlets eagerly covered salacious claims made by a former contractor who advised my office. A person who said she “made me” even though she hardly knew me, and someone who clung to me after my husband won the Presidency.”

Winston Wolkoff described herself as a former best friend of the first lady, having known her for around a decade and serving as an unpaid adviser at the White House. The long-time party planner stepped down from her role as adviser in February 2018, after the New York Times revealed that Donald Trump‘s Inaugural committee paid Winston Wolkoff’s firm $26 million after she helped plan the President’s swearing in ceremony.

In her book, Winston Wolkoff depicts the first lady in a unflattering light, making claims including that the first lady did not want to use the same toilet and shower that Michelle Obama had used, and that she did not want Ivanka Trump to appear in any of the photographs taken at the president’s inauguration.

“This is a woman who secretly recorded our phone calls, releasing portions from me that were out of context, then wrote a book of idle gossip trying to distort my character,” Trump wrote. “Her “memoir” included blaming me for her ailing health from an accident she had long ago, and for bad news coverage that she brought upon herself and others. Never once looking within at her own dishonest behavior and all in an attempt to be relevant. These kinds of people only care about their personal agenda—not about helping others.”

She then returned to berating the media’s coverage of the book and the secret recordings: “Once again, outlets chose to focus their coverage on pettiness over my positive work. There are plenty of opportunists out there who only care about themselves, and unfortunately seek to self-aggrandize by knowingly taking advantage of my goodwill.”