Melania brushed away Trump's 'grab 'em by the p***y' remark in 2016, claims former friend: 'He is who he is'
Former First Lady Melania Trump was reportedly not angry or unfazed at her husband and former President Donald Trump's infamous "grab 'em by the p***y" comments. The revelation came from Melania's former longtime friend, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who wrote about her side of their friendship in the book, 'Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady'.
The book came out in September 2020 and details tensions between Melania and her stepdaughter, Ivanka Trump, among other revelations. In 2016, just weeks before the presidential elections which saw Trump defeating Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States, reports revealed the former President's now-infamous words during a 2005 interview with Billy Bush on 'Access Hollywood'.
Bush and Trump were preparing to meet actress Arianne Zucker when Trump said in the controversial tapes that if you are famous, it lets you do anything you want with women, including "grab 'em by the p***y". Trump's comments shocked the nation and triggered a number of Republicans to withdraw their endorsement of him before Trump eventually apologized for the comments.
At the time, Melania stood by her husband and in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, she dismissed the comments as just "boy talk." Melania continued, "I heard many different stuff — boys talk." She added, "The boys, the way they talk when they grow up, and they want to sometimes show each other, 'Oh, this and that', and talking about the girls. But yes, I was surprised, of course."
She further said that she told Trump the language was "inappropriate" and "not acceptable," and argued that Bush had "egged on" her husband to make the lewd comments.
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According to Wolkoff, however, Melania Trump was not angry with Trump because "he is who he is" and was only worried about how the controversial tapes would affect Trump's chance of winning the elections. Wolkoff, in an interview with The Times, said this is what Melania said of the issue, "If it weren’t for this, there would be no question, he would win."
Melania reportedly told Wolkof when asked by the latter if she was angry about her husband's comments, "Nope! He is who he is." Wolkoff also claims that Melania said, "'I told him that if he ran for president, he had to be ready for everything to be opened up and exposed. His whole life."
In an interview last year with ABC's 'Good Morning America', Wolkoff said that Melania laughed off Trump's controversial comments, saying, "The day that the 'Access Hollywood' tape came out, she reached out to have lunch. Now, if any other human being or any other one of my friends I would have expected to see them in tears, right? She was smiling. It was as if nothing happened."
"I said to her, how many times have you heard the word p***y and president in the same sentence and we burst out laughing. Then I said are you upset and doesn't it get you angry and Melania is a pragmatist. Melania said, 'if you can't control people's emotions, then why even worry about it'. And that's how she lived her life and that is what she stood by every day," Wolkoff added.