As more news broke in the Stormy Daniels-Donald Trump saga, the key players inside the White House remain status quo.
First lady Melania Trump has stayed quiet for weeks on the topic, as salacious headlines abound.
Her communications director Stephanie Grisham did not respond to a request for comment. On the West Wing side, Trump’s press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Wednesday morning: “we’ve addressed our feelings on that situation and I don’t have anything else to add.”
“That situation” is, of course, the ongoing story, made all the more complicated Tuesday evening when Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, claiming the non-disclosure agreement the porn actress reportedly signed as a result of an alleged 2006 affair with Trump, was null and void due to the lack of Trump’s official signature on the document. The affair was said to have occurred in 2006, less than four months after Melania Trump gave birth to the couple’s son, Barron.
A lawyer for Trump, Michael Cohen, has admitted to paying Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to keep the details of the alleged affair underwraps. Cohen has said Trump “vehemently denies” any sexual encounter between the two.
For Melania Trump, there has been stoic silence, peppered with purposeful moments of voluntary separation. In mid-February, she chose to take a separate motorcade to Andrews Air Force Base to meet her husband at Air Force One for a trip to Florida, rather than walk across the South Lawn of the White House and board the Marine One helicopter. That trip came in the wake of fresh news about Trump and another alleged affair, this time with a former Playboy playmate.
Grisham at the time told CNN it was easier for the first lady’s schedule to drive separately.
By that evening, ensconced in their Mar-a-Lago resort, the first couple was spotted on a bench in the ballroom, laughing and chatting amiably – any coldness seemingly put in the rearview.
By Monday of this week, Melania Trump was participating in her more regular official duties, at the President’s side for the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara.
The first lady and Sara Netanyahu, both dressed in pastel colors and both wearing pricey designer high heels, sat with their husbands for an Oval Office photo op. The first lady, unaware that less than 48 hours later the porn actress would be suing her husband, likely in the hopes of being able to tell all about their alleged 2006 tryst.
