Melania Trump told the American TV channel Fox News that she was not informed about the events at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The wife of former US President Donald Trump asserted that she had fulfilled her “official duties as First Lady” that day and organized renovation work.
Earlier, the first lady’s former chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, made it public that Trump did not want to immediately sign a statement condemning the events on Jan. 6. A few weeks ago, Grisham posted a screenshot of a corresponding chat history on the short message service Twitter.
In the message, Grisham asked Trump for an official Twitter statement about the violent scenes at the US Capitol, according to the screenshot, Melania Trump answered with a simple “no”.
Hundreds of Trump supporters violently stormed the US Congress on January 6, 2021, interrupting a session of parliamentarians who wanted to formally confirm Joe Biden’s election victory. Five people were killed, and a committee of inquiry in the US Senate is now investigating the events.
Melania Trump, on the other hand, sees the blame on her chief of staff. “It’s evident that Grisham’s latest betrayal is a last-ditch effort to salvage her ruined career and reputation,” she told Fox News. According to Trump, Grisham should have held a briefing on the events at the time.
The fact that Grisham was not in the White House that day borders on a breach of duty and was not an isolated case for the later press spokeswoman. Melania Trump made it clear that her former chief of staff now only wants to use the name Trump to increase attention to herself.
In an interview with the US broadcaster “CNN”, Stephanie Grisham recently made it clear that she had already found Melania Trump’s reaction to the events to be atypical and disappointing. “That was the moment when somehow everything broke in me.”
Grisham himself resigned after the storming of the US Capitol. The release of her messages with Melania Trump followed testimonies by a former White House staffer to the committee of inquiry into the events.