Friday, October 02, 2020

In Profane Rant, Melania Trump Takes Aim at Migrant Children and Critics

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The audio recording puts the first lady’s frustrations on full display just weeks before President Trump faces the voters in his bid for a second term.

WASHINGTON — The first lady, Melania Trump, delivered a profanity-laced rant about Christmas decorations at the White House and mocked the plight of migrant children who were separated from their parents at the border in 2018 during a conversation secretly taped by a former aide and close confidante.

“I’m working like a — my ass off at Christmas stuff,” Mrs. Trump laments to the former aide, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who has just published a tell-all book, in a recording that was first broadcast on CNN on Thursday night. Mrs. Trump continued, “You know, who gives a fuck about Christmas stuff and decoration?”

Later in the conversation, which occurred in July 2018, the first lady complained about the criticism leveled at President Trump and his administration that summer for separating families in a crackdown on illegal immigration.

“I say that I’m working on Christmas planning for the Christmas, and they said, ‘Oh, what about the children?’ That they were separated.” She used another obscenity to express her exasperation, asking Ms. Winston Wolkoff, “Where they were saying anything when Obama did that?”

The audio recording puts the first lady’s frustrations on full display only weeks before Mr. Trump faces voters in his bid for a second term. » | Michael D. Shear | Thursday, October 1, 2020