Melania Trump Campaign Message Decoded By Former Pal

Melania Trump's one-time pal, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, has given her take on the former first lady's campaign message.

The 53-year-old has kept a low profile in recent years, but stood alongside her husband, Donald Trump, as he addressed reporters in Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday.

The former president is the presumptive Republican candidate in November's general election, having racked up enough delegate votes in the primaries.

When asked if she'd be joining him on the campaign trail, Melania Trump replied: "Stay tuned."

Wolkoff, who penned The New York Times bestseller Melania and Me: The Rise & Fall of a Friendship, shared her thoughts on that reply to X, formerly Twitter.

"Let me interpret this for you: DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATHE!," she wrote alongside the clip, with her assessment receiving over 73,000 views.

Newsweek has reached out to Melania Trump for comment by email and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff via the @swinstonwolkoff_melaniaandme Instagram account.

Some users agreed with Wolkoff's evaluation.

"How is this a surprise?" commented Silvija V. "Look at Melania's body language; she has no desire to be standing next to Trump."

"The way he looked at her...he knows damn well she ain't having it!" said R Russell.

"He actually turned around because he, too, was curious about what she plans to do," wrote Greer McVay.

"She's just keeping up appearances that is not a happy marriage by a long shot," said Miranda Spigener-Sapon.

However, others disagreed with Wolkoff's interpretation, calling her opinion "worthless."

"Let me interpret that: Yes, I will be with him on the campaign trail a great deal," said @bobbithetabby.

"In my experience, that statement, 'stay tuned' more often results in yes," wrote @holytrinity132.

"Apparently now democrats are mind readers," commented Anca.

"I will take the former First Lady at her word and indeed 'stay tuned' with anticipation," said @miller_lin73360. "Try some grace some time."

Wolkoff was a long-time friend of Melania Trump's before she took a job at the White House in 2017. The former PR executive was instrumental in planning the former president's inauguration, before working as an unpaid aide to the first lady.

Wolkoff left her post in 2018 following an exposé in The New York Times on inauguration spending. The justice department investigated Wolkoff after it was discovered that her firm, WIS Services, was paid $26 million to organize the event—roughly a quarter of the inauguration cost.

Wolkoff claimed she was "scapegoated," taking home only $1.6 million of the fee. The 53-year-old shared her side of the story in Melania and Me: The Rise & Fall of a Friendship, released in September 2020.

Wolkoff has since become a vocal critic of the Trump family, accusing Melania of covering up her family's "nefarious" activities.