Former Melania Trump Pal Dissects Her Video With Donald

Video footage of Melania Trump attending a fundraiser alongside her husband Donald Trump has been given a cutting analysis by her former friend and aide, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.

The former first lady has maintained a low profile as her husband seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024. She did not show up to receive an award at a fundraiser at the Trumps' Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday. The former president accepted the award on her behalf.

However, she did appear alongside Donald Trump on Saturday at a fundraiser with major donors at the Palm Beach home of billionaire investor John Paulson.

The event raised $50.5 million, according to Trump's campaign, almost doubling the $26 million that President Joe Biden's campaign said it recently raised at an event with former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at New York City's Radio City Music Hall.

Following the event, video footage was shared on X, formerly Twitter, showing Donald Trump speaking about how Americans want change as his Slovenian-born wife stood by his side. "The rich people want it, the poor people want it, everybody wants change," the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said. "The country is really doing poorly. We're a laughing stock all over the world. We're gonna get that changed very quickly."

Posting the clip to her X account, Winston Wolkoff opined that Melania Trump was in for a rough ride as her husband's reelection efforts ramped up.

"Looks like Melania Trump is about to dive head first into a pool of sharks & nobody's going to protect her," she tweeted. "I was the only life guard on duty when she was First Lady.

"She chose to live a life in a minefield, where every step is treacherous & never sure when it might explode. She and he are one in the same."

As of press time, the X post has garnered more than 1 million views. Newsweek has contacted a representative of Donald Trump's campaign via email for comment.

Winston Wilkoff was Melania Trump'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 inauguration.

In February 2018, Melania Trump cut ties with Winston Wolkoff after news broke 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, she 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," the former aide previously told Newsweek.

Melania Trump has largely been absent from her husband's presidential campaign events, declining to make public appearances or comments about the election. Her presence has been scaled back in contrast to the 2016 presidential campaign when she took on a more active role.

Her absence was the subject of much speculation, as critics questioned why she appeared to remove herself from public life. The talk was exacerbated when the former model was notably absent from a Trump family Christmas card, which featured her husband, all of his children, and her father.

Donald Trump had revealed his wife's reasons for being absent from his New Year's Eve party, when he explained in a speech at his residence Mar-a-Lago that she had been with her "very ill" mother, Amalija Knavs, in a Miami hospital. Knavs died in January at the age of 78.

In March, Melania stood next to her husband while he fielded questions from reporters after casting his vote in the Florida Republican primary. When asked by reporters if she planned to return to the campaign trail ahead of the 2024 election, Melania Trump responded: "Stay tuned."

During a town hall in South Carolina in February, Donald Trump said that his "very brilliant" wife's attention was devoted to their son Barron Trump, who turned 18 on March 20.

"Her life revolves around that boy, [he's] so important to her," the former star of The Apprentice told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. "At the same time, it also revolves around our country and the success of our country. She's raised a lot of money for charity."

"She's a private person," he continued. "It's funny, she was a very successful model, very, very successful, and yet she was a private person. She's going to be out a lot, not because she likes doing it, but she likes the result. She wants to see this country really succeed.

"[The people] love the fact that she's not out there so much. You know, a lot of first ladies will go out. They want to be everywhere. They get angry at their husband because he's not introducing them. If I didn't introduce Melania she'd be very happy about it. She's just a different kind of a person. And she loves the country."

Melania Trump is expected to hold her first major political event of the year when she appears at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago on April 20 for the Log Cabin Republicans, which bills itself as the nation's largest organization representing LGBT conservatives and allies.