Melania Trump Slams Former Friend Who Wrote Tell-All Book: 'Idle Gossip'

In a rare show of emotion, the ordinarily reserved First Lady Melania Trump unleashed a barrage of criticism on Friday October 16, which was aimed at her former friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who wrote a bestselling tell-all book about their relationship.

Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with The First Lady was released six weeks ago and triggered Mrs. Trump to express a variety of blistering responses in an essay she penned for the White House website.

In the statement, she included notations that Winston Wolkoff was guilty of "dishonest behavior," "hardly knew me" and was "trying to distort my character."

The First Lady described Winston Wolkoff as 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," she wrote, adding, "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."

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Trump went on to term Winston Wolkoff's book as a pointedly-in-quotes "memoir" and added that she was guilty of "an attempt to be relevant."

"These kinds of people only care about their personal agenda — not about helping others," she stated.

Trump also used the opportunity to blast the media for concentrating on the salacious aspects of the book rather than the philanthropic work she has been doing as First Lady: "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," she noted.

Winston Wolkoff is not explicitly named, but the essay comes just days after the Justice Department filed a surprising lawsuit against her, claiming she breached a confidentiality agreement with her book, which was packed with a variety of juicy stories about the First Lady.

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The book covers everything from criticisms of stepdaughter Ivanka Trump, to dismissing issues of child welfare at the U.S.-Mexican border, to complaints about having to decorate the White House for Christmas. (“Who gives a f**k about the Christmas stuff and decorations?” was one of the more incendiary quotes included.)