First lady lashes out at reports about friend who tell-all

“I have most recently found this to be the case as major news outlets eagerly covered salacious claims made by a former contractor who advised my office." While it's relatively rare for first ladies to push back so strongly against negative coverage, Mrs. Trump has repeatedly spoken out about her critics.

Melania Trump lashed out Friday at "self-serving adults" for focusing on her falling out with a friend and adviser, writing that the attention paid to "salacious claims" about the broken relationship comes at the expense of her work on behalf of children. Mrs Trump also sharply criticized Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the former friend and aide who recently wrote a tell-all book about the friendship, her role in helping produce President Donald Trump's inauguration and her work helping the first lady set up her office.

"We all know that more often than not, information that could be helpful to children is lost in the noise made by self-serving adults," the first lady said in a blog post. "I have most recently found this to be the case as major news outlets eagerly covered salacious claims made by a former contractor who advised my office." While it's relatively rare for first ladies to push back so strongly against negative coverage, Mrs. Trump has repeatedly spoken out about her critics. Katherine Jellison, a history professor at Ohio University who studies first ladies, said Mrs. Trump's response was "not from the usual first lady playbook." "Typically, they ignore any scandalous reporting about themselves or make some brief, non-contentious statement," Jellison said in an email.