'I was trying get the kid reunited with the mom': Melania reveals details of her visit to detention center in secretly recorded audio as she says she wishes people would 'Give me a f****** break’ – as former friend makes their calls public
Melania Trump has been heard saying 'give me a f***ing break' while talking about the criticism she received over children being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border.
In new secretly recorded audio tapes released by the First Lady's ex-best friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff on CNN, Melania reveals details about her visit to a immigration detention center in McAllen, Texas back in June 2018.
Wolkoff appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper Thursday.
The former model is also heard voicing her frustrations at being criticized for her husband's policy of splitting up families who illegally crossed the border while at the same time having to perform traditional first lady tasks, such as decorating the White House for Christmas.
'They say I'm complicit. I'm the same like [President Trump], I support him, I don't say enough. I don't do enough,' Melania says.
'Where I am. I put - I'm working like a - my a** off - at Christmas stuff that you know, who gives a f*** about Christmas stuff and decoration? But I need to do it, right?
'Ok, and then I do it. And I say that I'm working on Christmas planning for the Christmas. And they said, "Oh, what about the children that they were separated?"
'Give me a f***ing break. Where they were saying anything when Obama did that?,' Melania fumed in the June 2018 call.
The First Lady added: 'I cannot go. I was trying to get the kid reunited with the mom. I didn't have a chance. Needs to go through the process and through the law.'
It is not clear which mother and child Melania is talking about but she says 'we put it out, they would not do the story,' referring to the press.
'They are not, they would not do the story because they, they, they are against us, because they're liberal media,' she said.
'Yeh if I go to Fox, they will do the story. I don't want to go to Fox.'
![In new audio tapes released by the First Lady's ex-best friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (right) on CNN, Melania said: 'They say I'm complicit. I'm the same like him [Trump], I support him, I don't say enough. I don't do enough.'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/10/02/04/33887860-8796933-In_new_audio_tapes_released_by_the_First_Lady_s_ex_best_friend_S-a-64_1601609189108.jpg)
In new audio tapes released by the First Lady's ex-best friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (right) on CNN, Melania said: 'They say I'm complicit. I'm the same like him [Trump], I support him, I don't say enough. I don't do enough.'
Melania Trump has been heard saying 'Where I am. I put - I'm working like a - my a** off - at Christmas stuff that you know, who gives a f*** about Christmas stuff and decoration? But I need to do it, right?'
The comments came as part of recordings released by the First Lady's ex-best friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff on CNN with Anderson Cooper Thursday
Melania's reference to Obama mirrors her husband’s claim that his presidential predecessor was responsible for the policy of separating children from their parents at the border.
Under Obama's policy, children were only separated from parents when authorities had concerns for their well-being or if they could not confirm that the adult was their legal guardian. The Trump administration, however, adopted the protocol as a blanket policy, until a judge ordered the practice to stop.
During the same conversation with Wolkoff, Melania appeared to tell her that she believed the children being held in detention camps were happy to be in US custody.
'All these kids that I met they were, they’re here in the shelters because they were brought by it through Coyotes, the people who were trafficking - that's why they put them in jail,' Melania is heard saying.
'And the kids that they go in shelters. And the way they take care of them. It’s – you know, they even said, the kids, they said "Wow I had my own bed? I will sleep on the bed. I will have a cabinet for my clothes?"'
'It's so sad to hear it. But they didn't have that in their own countries. They're sleeping on the floors. They are taken care [of] nicely [in the detention centers].'
In the audio, Melania acknowledges that it's 'sad' the children are not with their parents, before later appearing to imply that some of those seeking asylum often fabricate stories that they're fleeing gang violence to game the system.
'A lot of moms and kids, they are teached [sic] how to do it. They go over and they say like, "Oh we will be killed by gang members ... It's so dangerous". So they're allowed to stay here.
'They could easily stay in Mexico but they don't want to stay in Mexico because Mexico doesn't take care of them the same as America does,' Melania asserts.
Wolkoff said that she believed Melania would've likely initially had a maternal concern for the children, but likely moved past it to fit in with the ideals of her husband's administration.
'I think that as a mother, those maternal instincts in her were set off and she did care,' Wolkoff said, 'But there is no husband to come to, the leader of the free world, to discuss how she's feeling about that. So regardless of that, she steps in line and she just decides that what she has heard and what she's been told is what the rule of law is in our country.'
Wolkoff said that she believed Melania would've likely initially had a maternal concern for the children that had been separated from their parents, but likely moved past it to fit in with her husband's administration
Wolkoff also told Cooper Melania wore the infamous 'I really don't care, do u?' jacket when she visited a migrant child detention center as a publicity stunt.
'It was a publicity stunt, and it was to garner the attention of the press, to make sure that everyone was aware that Melania was going to the border,' Wolkoff said.
Part of the motive behind the statement, according to Wolkoff, was for the Trumps to celebrate that they 'had something over' Barack and Michelle Obama, neither of whom visited the migrant camps during their time in the White House.
'They do things not for the purpose that good deeds are done for,' Wolkoff said. 'Good deeds are done for the intent of doing good, not for the attention you get for doing good deeds.
'Unfortunately, this administration and the people around them, and this family, are only doing things that benefit them instead of all of these children and people that are suffering.'
During the broadcast, a clip of another conversation between Melania and Wolkoff about the jacket was aired.
Wolkoff is heard asking Melania what spurred her to buy it in the first place, to which the First Lady responded: 'I'm driving Liberals crazy for sure ... And they deserve it.'
In a statement to CNN, Melania's chief of staff Stephanie Grisham blasted Wolkoff for releasing the recording.
'Secretly taping the First Lady and willfully breaking an NDA to publish a salacious book is a clear attempt at relevance. The timing of this continues to be suspect - as does this never-ending exercise in self-pity and narcissism,' Grisham's comment read.
Wolkoff told Anderson Cooper Melania wore the infamous 'I really don't care, do you' jacket when she visited a migrant child detention center as a publicity stunt
U.S. first lady Melania Trump steps out of her motorcade before boarding an Air Force plane and traveling to Texas to visit facilities that house and care for children taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border June 21, 2018
A former Vogue magazine staffer who oversaw the Met Gala and other converted events, Wolkoff has known Melania for more than 10 years.
Wolkoff was Trump's first hire for the East Wing where she was appointed a senior advisor to Melania, writing her speeches and helping to craft her 'Be Best' initiative.
She published her tell-all 'Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of my Friendship with the First Lady' on September 1.
Wolkoff published her tell-all 'Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of my Friendship with the First Lady' on September 1.
It was revealed last month that President Donald Trump's Department of Justice got directly involved in trying to stop Wolkoff from publishing the book.
The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that on July 15, Ethan P. Davis, the acting assistant attorney general of the DOJ's Civil Division, contacted Wolkoff's attorney and referenced a non-disclosure agreement Wolkoff had signed for her time spent working on Trump's 2017 inauguration and serving as a senior adviser to the first lady.
A week before, The Daily Beast had broken the story that Wolkoff was releasing such a book, teasing it as an 'explosive' tell-all before the 2020 election.
The Trumps' personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz quickly got involved sending a letter to Wolkoff and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, on July 8 - a day after The Daily Beast's scoop ran.
The letter said the book breached the confidentiality clause in a 'Gratuitous Services Agreement' between Wolkoff and the first lady, which was signed on August 22, 2017.
'The Services Agreement prohibits Ms. Wolkoff from, among other things, disclosing her work for FLOTUS and the White House Office of the First Lady, as well as any information furnished to [her] by the Government under this Agreement, information about the First Family, or any other information about which [she] may become aware during the course of her performance,' the letter states, according to The Daily Beast.
A former Vogue magazine staffer who oversaw the Met Gala and other converted events, Wolkoff has known Melania for more than 10 years. Wolkoff was Trump's first hire for the East Wing where she was appointed a senior advisor to Melania, writing her speeches and helping to craft her 'Be Best' initiative
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