Melania Trump used a personal email address in the White House, former aide says

Melania Trump regularly used private email accounts while in the White House to discuss state visits and government hires, a former friend has claimed. 

Author Stephanie Winston Wolkoff told The Washington Post: ‘Melania and I both didn’t use White House emails.’ The first lady is said to have used a private Trump Organization email account and an email from a MelaniaTrump.com domain as well as iMessage.

Winston Wolkoff’s upcoming memoir, ‘Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,’ is the first book to come from a former member of the first lady’s inner circle. 

On Tuesday Winston Wolkoff admitted recording her conversations with Melania, but defended doing so, saying she did it for ‘protection’.  

Winston Wolkoff was an unpaid White House adviser to the first lady until February 2018, when her contract was terminated as questions about inaugural spending arose.  

In 2018 The Washington Post reported that Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails about government business from a personal email account to White House aides, Cabinet members and her assistant.

Ivanka dismissed any comparison to the use of private email by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which prompted an FBI investigation and inspired the ‘Lock Her Up’ chant at Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign rallies.

Use of personal emails is allowed but it is illegal to discuss anything classified. 

Messages allegedly sent by Melania are said to show her discussing government hires, state visits and schedules, the Easter egg roll and her Be Best initiative.  

Former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter said: ‘It’s total hypocrisy. They got elected acting as if Hillary Clinton ought to be in jail for using the wrong email.’ 

Probed on the existence of tapes  Winston Wolkoff, a former Vogue events organizer, told MSNBC: ‘Melania and the White House had accused me of criminal activity, had publicly shamed and fired me, and made me their scapegoat.

‘At that moment in time, that’s when I pressed record.’ 

Previous revelations to come from her bombshell book include details on how Melania reportedly prevented Ivanka from appearing in key photos of the inauguration ceremony.

The 50-year-old first lady allegedly nicknamed her 38-year-old stepdaughter ‘princess,’ calling her and her husband Jared Kushner ‘snakes.’ 

She is also said to have laughed during the 2016 campaign after the infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ tape came out and revealed Donald Trump saying he liked to grab women ‘by the p****.’  

Wolkoff claims the first lady also scoffed at Michelle Obama’s time in office. She reportedly once said ‘Did Michelle Obama go to the border? She never did. Show me the pictures!’

The book also claims Melania ignored Michelle’s choice to highlight American fashion designers and decided to wear whoever she wanted like Karl Lagerfeld. 

Melania also allegedly told Wolkoff she wouldn’t move into the White House until the shower and toilet used by the Obamas in the presidential residence were replaced – claims he new book. 

The first lady’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham has dubbed the book ‘wildly self-aggrandizing’ revenge from a woman who joined the ranks of the president’s enemies. 

Its release comes days after Melania and Ivanka exchanged what appeared to be an icy stare at the Republican Convention where the president formally accepted the nomination to run for a second term. 

Winston Wolkoff has said it was ‘the worst mistake of my life’ to work for Donald Trump and his family.  

‘When it really counted, Melania wasn’t there for me,’ Ms Wolkoff wrote her book. 

‘She wasn’t really my friend. In fact, I wish I had never met her,’ the author says about the first lady, a former fashion model.  

Wolkoff’s memoir recounts her friendship with Melania and her work with her, including on the presidential inauguration and in the East Wing.  

It traces her friendship with the first lady, going back to their days when Wolkoff worked for Vogue and the then-Melania Knauss was a struggling model dating a New York real estate mogul. 

The two women evolved into a friendship that included monthly lunch dates and New York society events.

But that friendship crashed and burned, starting with Trump’s election.  

The two women had a falling out over Wolkoff’s work for the inauguration and reports on how much money she was paid for the gig. 

Wolkoff left the East Wing in February 2018 after news reports showed that her firm, WIS Media Partners, received a $26 million payment for its work on the inaugural.

The firm in turn spent $24 million on subcontractors, a person familiar with the inaugural planning told DailyMail.com at the time. The source said Wolkoff provided ‘the whole look and feel – the creative vision’ for 18 or 20 inaugural events.

Her personal take from Trump’s inaugural committee was reported to be about $500,000 while the rest went to other producers working on the event. 

Melania Trump dismissed her from the East Wing with an email. 

‘I am sorry that the professional part of our relationship has come to an end, but I am comforted in the fact that our [friendship] far outweigh[s] politics,’ the first lady wrote. ‘Thank you Again! Much love.’