First Lady Melania Trump dismissed Ivana Trump’s comments joking that she really held the position of First Lady, as the former insinuated in a statement that her husband’s ex-wife only made the comments to sell her new memoir.
“Mrs. Trump has made the White House a home for Barron and the President. She loves living in Washington, DC and is honored by her role as First Lady of the United States. She plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books,” Melania Trump’s spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to Fortune. “There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex, this is unfortunately only attention-seeking and self-serving noise.”
Ivana Trump, the mother of Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump, was married to the President from 1977 until 1992. She has given several interviews over the past few days in anticipation of her new memoir Raising Trump, which is slated for release on October 10. Speaking on Good Morning America Monday, she touted her close relationship with the President.
“I have a direct number to the White House but I [don’t] really want to call him there because Melania is there and I don’t want to cause any jealousy or something like that, because I’m basically first Trump wife I’m First Lady, okay?”
Ivana Trump says she has Pres. Trump's direct White House number: "I'm basically first Trump wife. I'm first lady." https://t.co/SiTlUUDX2Spic.twitter.com/0DQ5AMQ311
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 9, 2017
In an interview on Sunday with CBS News however, Ivana said she gets along with Melania Trump, who is the President’s third wife. She could not say the same about not her immediate successor, Marla Maples, whom President Trump allegedly had an affair with while they were married. She referred to Maples as a “nobody.”