Melania Trump’s Reaction to Stormy Daniels Revealed by Former Aide

Melania Trump’s former friend and aide Stephanie Winston Wolkoff has shared the ex-first lady’s alleged reaction to Stormy Daniels, who alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump 18 years ago.

Daniels has alleged that she had a fling with the former president in 2006, a year after he married Melania Trump. The allegations, which Trump has denied, have had significant ramifications for the real estate mogul, including his “hush money” criminal trial, which began with jury selection on Monday in New York City.

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to the so-called “hush money” he arranged for his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair she had with Trump a secret ahead of the 2016 election.

The money was listed in Trump’s company records as “legal fees,” which prosecutors suggest was part of an unlawful attempt to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential race.

Former The Apprentice star Donald Trump, who is the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee, had admitted to reimbursing the $130,000 hush money to Cohen but denied having an affair with Daniels. He said the trial is part of a political witch hunt aimed at derailing his White House bid.

Amid the sudden surge in media attention on Daniels after the allegations initially came to light, she became the target of attacks but was not in a position to defend herself due to a non-disclosure agreement. Eventually, she risked a $1 million fine by sitting down for an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes to tell her side of the story in 2018.

In a post shared on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday—the eve of Donald Trump’s criminal trial beginning in New York City—Winston Wolkoff shared Melania Trump’s alleged reaction to Daniels in the days that followed the interview.

“Melania Trump called me 3/28/2018 three days after the Stormy Daniels 60 [Minutes] Interview,” the former aide wrote. “You think Melania ever mentioned Donald? Nope! Melania wanted me to know that, ‘Annie Leibovitz was photographing the “Porn-Hoooker” {Stormy} for Vogue,’ she said. That’s Melania.”

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Donald Trump’s campaign and Daniels via email and social media for comment. Winston Wolkoff has been contacted via social media.

During her 60 Minutes interview in March 2018, Daniels alleged that she was threatened to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Donald Trump by an unnamed man.

Daniels and her then-lawyer, Michael Avenatti, released the sketch in 2018 of the man Daniels claims threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 when she was considering telling her story about the alleged affair.

“A guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,'” she recalled at the time. “And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”

Shortly after Daniels’ claims were publicly shared, Donald Trump wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the allegations were a “total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”

Daniels said on her podcast, Beyond the Norm, in January that she was “set to testify” during Donald Trump’s trial, which will see him pulled away from his campaigning efforts as he vies to return to the White House.

Winston Wolkoff has been highly critical of Melania Trump in the years since their relationship soured. She was the former first lady’s first hire after Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory and has frequently shared her thoughts on the couple since stepping down from her post. The women’s friendship ended following reports that Winston Wolkoff benefited handsomely as a contractor for the 2017 presidential inauguration.

In February 2018, Melania Trump cut ties with Winston Wolkoff after it was reported that her event planning company, WIS Media Partners, received $26 million to help coordinate Donald Trump’s inauguration.

In Winston Wolkoff’s 2020 book, Melania and Me, the former aide said she resigned because the Trump administration scapegoated her. She has denied claims that she received $26 million, countering that she was paid a fee of $1.6 million.

“Melania and Donald Trump weaponized the DOJ against me by having Jeffrey Clark sue me to try and silence me so the truth and the facts about this, them, and so much more wouldn’t be shared with the American people,” Winston Wolkoff previously told Newsweek.