Journalist Michael Wolff has said that Donald and Melania Trump are essentially “separated.”
On Tuesday’s episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, Wolff and host Joanna Coles tore into the chaos of the first few months of the second Trump administration and the various, warring White House factions at play.
Wolff has written multiple best-selling books on Trump, including the 2018 title Fire & Fury and February’s All Or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America. The White House has repeatedly labeled Wolff a “lying sack of s–t” and “a fraud.”
When Coles asked Wolff to what extent Trump’s family—namely first lady (and third wife) Melania Trump—is involved this time around, Wolff was characteristically blunt.
“They clearly do not in any way inhabit a marriage as we define marriage,“ Wolff said. ”And I think maybe we can more specifically say they live separate lives. They are separated. The President of the United States and the First Lady are separated.”
The two share one child, 19-year-old Barron Trump; their relationship came under particular scrutiny last year as Trump was on trial and then convicted for making hush money payments to pornstar Stormy Daniels, an act that left Melania “furious,” according to The New York Times. She did not appear alongside her husband during the 2024 trial.
Wolff said the story of Melania’s disappearance was “head-smacking” and referenced a “cute” Times feature that detailed the rare public appearances she has made since January’s inauguration
“I think the message was about how many times she’d been to the White House or how many days she’d been there in the first 100 days, right?” Coles said. “And it turned out to be 14.”
The Times reported that Melania effectively “vanishes from view for weeks at a time,” de-camping to homes in New York or Florida’s Mar-a-Lago.
Officials told the Times Melania is at the White House more often than the public knows, but they couldn’t say how long she stays there.
“But they didn’t go and say, ‘this is obviously a marriage in trouble,’” Wolff said. “The American public has been sold a bill of goods here that, you know, Donald Trump and his glamorous wife. That runs entirely counter to all of the facts here, including the fact that they don’t spend any time together.”
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