Trump wanted North Korea-like inauguration day and bring in 'tanks and choppers', claims Melania's ex-aide
It is not new information that President Donald Trump admires North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. And now, a new book has reiterated the president’s liking for the pariah nation’s way of celebrating state programs. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former adviser to First Lady Melania Trump, has come up with a tell-all book in which she said Trump, the then-president-elect, wanted to have a North Korea-like celebration on his inauguration day on January 20, 2017. Ivanka Trump, who is now one of the president’s senior adviser, wanted to host a ball with actor Leonardo DiCaprio at the National Portrait Gallery.
Trump is the first sitting president to have met the North Korean leader for peace talks. The duo first met in Singapore in June 2018 followed by the second meeting in Vietnam in February 2019. In June the same year, the two met and traveled to the demilitarized zone. However, despite all these high-profile meetings, the experts have hoped little about North Korea completely giving up the route to nuclear armament.
In ‘Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship With the First Lady’, which is set to be released on Tuesday, September 1, Stephanie claimed that Trump had told her: “I want tanks and choppers. Make it look like North Korea.” She played an instrumental role in planning the 2017 event, parade and other celebrations for the Republican’s presidency and had close contact with the first family then. Her relationship with the Trumps deteriorated over time and her stint ended in February 2018. Wolkoff’s book is considered a "revenge" for she considers her integrity was permanently damaged by the Trump White House. It has been alleged that she was removed from the White House on charges of profiting from her role on the president’s inaugural committee. Stephanie denied the allegations and also the charge that she was dismissed.
Trumps, aides had big ideas for inauguration day
In her book, a copy of which was with Daily Mail, Wolkoff said Trump, his family and other aides had several ideas to commemorate the 2016 victory though not all of them were executed. Mark Burnett, the producer of ‘The Apprentice’ who was brought on board to help in the inauguration plans, wanted to see the Trumps arriving at the White House in a grand way: a ticker-red parade in New York City followed by the Trumps traveling to the top of the Trump Tower and then go to Washington in a helicopter. But it did not happen. Neither did Ivanka’s wish nor that of Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Junior and Eric, to hold a Camouflage and Cufflinks ball materialize. Burnett also wanted to light up the capital’s sky with drones but even that idea was shot down because of security reasons.
White House has disputed Wolkoff's claims
The White House has contested much of the book’s content and saw it more as a revenge tactic by the former informal and unpaid adviser to Melania.
“Anybody who secretly tapes their self-described best friend is by definition, dishonest. The book is not only full of mistruths and paranoia, it is based on some imagined need for revenge. Wolkoff builds herself up while belittling and blaming everyone she worked with, yet she still managed to be the victim. Sadly, this is a deeply insecure woman who needs to be relevant defies logic,” Stephanie Grisham, Melania's chief of staff, told DailyMail.
Several of Wolkoff’s 339-page book talk about the inauguration, something that sparked a controversy over her role in it. In February 2018, the New York Times came up with a report saying Trump’s inauguration cost $107 million, twice the amount spent behind Barack Obama’s inauguration and Wolkoff’s firm got $26 million of that money. According to Wolkoff, who also made several revelations about Melania, the story was planted by her enemies in the White House and by those who wanted to escape the question on where the money actually went.
