After Stormy Daniels interview airs, new controversy erupts between Donald and Melania Trump
After your former mistress goes on national television and exposes the details of your affair, it’s not the best look when your wife decides to spend the week away from you. Donald Trump departed Mar-a-Lago for Washington DC on Sunday evening, right around the time the Stormy Daniels interview was airing, and by all accounts, his wife Melania Trump decided not to go with him. In fact she’s said to be staying in Florida for awhile.
The White House is trotting out an official excuse for why Melania is spending a week away from Donald, citing Barron’s spring break from school. But as is so often the case, Trump’s White House protested too much by insisting that this was “tradition” for the family, when in fact this is the first spring break in which Donald, Melania and Barron have all lived in the White House, as Melania and Barron were living in New York a year ago. In other words, as usual, the official explanation from the Trump camp can’t be taken at face value.
No matter what other factors may or may not be at play here, the cold hard reality for Donald Trump is that his wife is bailing on him immediately after his mistress spilled her guts about their affair on national television. Daniels’ story has been partially out there for years, so it’s difficult to imagine that Melania didn’t know about the affair long before the recent big headlines about it. As such, Melania’s recent decision to being acting out against Donald must be because she feels humiliated about the affair having become public. In that vein, the 60 Minutes interview represents the tipping point of that humiliation.
So what now? We’ll see what Melania Trump does in a week, when her “spring break” excuse dries up and she has to decide whether or not to return to the White House. Thus far she’s officially stood by him, even while publicly snubbing him every chance she gets. Whether Melania leaves him or not, she seems intent on (justifiably) causing Donald Trump trouble at a time when his criminal scandals are enveloping him and he can’t afford this kind of personal mess.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report