Melania Trump’s fiery statement denying any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein doesn’t seem to have been her husband’s idea.
Trump, in an interview with The New York Times on Friday, claimed he knew the first lady would be making a statement on Thursday, but was unaware of its content. Melania, in an unexpected—and oddly timed—presser at the White House, denied having a relationship with Epstein or his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell; criticized media reporting about the three of them; and called on Congress to allow Epstein’s victims to testify.
Despite not knowing what she planned to say, Trump, 79, insisted his wife’s decision to bring the scandal that has long dogged his second term back into the spotlight didn’t “bother” him because she “had a right to talk about it.”
Melania, he explained, was upset by press coverage of the long-rumored claim that it was Epstein who introduced her to her future husband, which she denies.
“She finds it very insulting,” Trump told the Times. “And I said, ‘If you want to do that, you can do that.’ I said if she wants to do it—I didn’t recommend it, but I said: If you want to do it...”
Trump added, “She didn’t meet me through Jeffrey Epstein. And I could understand her feelings. But I said, ‘If you want to do it, do it.’”
Trump said the two discussed it for “about two minutes,” but he didn’t specify when. He added that he doesn’t know whether he would have handled the statement the same way.
Melania, 55, has long claimed she met Trump at a New York City party in 1998. Paolo Zampolli, Trump’s special envoy and a former modeling agent who did business with Epstein, has said he introduced the couple.
“I said: ‘Melania meet Donald, Donald meet Melania,’ and then I left the table because I had 300 guests,” Zampolli told the Daily Beast.
Melania said she didn’t meet Epstein until 2000. That February, she, Trump, Epstein, and Maxwell were photographed together at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump said the first lady “did a good job” in her speech, after which she took no questions about the odd timing of her statement. But her comments rekindled the fire under a story that the president has been desperate to leave behind.
When asked by the Times if he was angered by the flood of new headlines, Trump claimed not.
“No,” he said. “I never get upset.”
He added, “I don’t mind anything having to do with Epstein… The only thing I don’t like is I waste a lot of time” on the subject.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
