nice happy family

A wild Melania Trump conspiracy theory is making the rounds again… again

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A four-year-old conspiracy theory involving Melania Trump is recirculating on the internet again (again) along with another story about exactly how she purportedly spent her time living on the people’s dime inside the White House.

The conspiracy theory involves allegations that the ex-FLOTUS refused to move into the White House after her husband took office until all the toilets used by the previous occupants, President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were replaced.

As you may recall, after attending her husband’s inauguration in January 2017, Melania immediately jetted back to New York and continued living in the Trump Tower penthouse in New York until July of that year.

At the time, her camp claimed she was waiting for Barron to finish up the school year, although it was later reported she was renegotiating her prenup.

Then a few years ago, rumors began circulating that the real reason she refused to move into the executive mansion was because she was waiting for the bathrooms to be renovated. Specifically, she wanted all the toilets and showers to be replaced.

The rumors appear to stem from the 2020 book Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady by Mrs. Trump’s former BFF Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. And they’ve been making their rounds on the internet ever since.

On Friday, Snopes published an article digging into the whole thing.

The internet sleuths ultimately concluded that the story could neither be confirmed nor denied, and so the rumors were classified as “unproven” and politely chalked the whole thing up to “the complexities of transitioning administrations and the personal preferences of first families”:

While there is no proof that Melania’ Trump’s renovation requirements were of a personal, let alone racially motivated nature, the controversy surrounding her delayed move to the White House until bathroom renovations were completed underscored the complexities of transitioning administrations and the personal preferences of first families.

The conspiracy theory has begun recirculating at the same time new reports that Melania spent the majority of her time in the White House lounging around in a plush bathrobe and working on her scrapbooks hit the internet.

In the new book American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden, released last month, author Katie Rogers spoke to former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who claimed that the ex-FLOTUS loved wearing soft, terry-cloth bathrobes, similar to the kind one might find at an upscale hotel or spa, “all the time.”

According to Rogers, Melania spent most of her days “assembling photo albums of her aesthetic contributions to the White House” and “avoided being overscheduled, and at times avoided being scheduled at all.”

Rogers also writes that Melania’s team would bend over backwards to convince her to do multiple events on days when the once aspiring model was “camera ready, with a full designer ensemble, dewy makeup, and a pristine blowout.”

All this could explain why Mrs. Trump exited the White House with the worst popularity rating of any first lady at the end of her term in polling history and why she remains deeply unpopular to this day.

Since leaving Washington D.C., Melania has kept an even lower profile. She rarely steps out into the spotlight and has only attended a small–very small–handful of Trump’s 2024 campaign events and done a total of one–yes, just one–interview about a year ago, during which she said she’d be delighted to be first lady again!

Last week, she was spotted for the first time in months when she and her 77-year-old husband both went to vote in the Florida primary. Asked whether she would ever be joining her him on the campaign trail, the ex-FLOTUS simply replied, “Stay tuned.”

Considering that her husband has been ordered to pay almost $600 million in legal judgments since the beginning of the year ($454 million in his civil fraud lawsuit in New York plus another $83.3 million in damages to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her plus interest), we’re guessing Melania’s not too happy with him right now and won’t be doing very much to help him in his reelection efforts.

In an interview last fall, Winston Wolkoff said the Trumps’ marriage has always been transactional. “I believe it’s a transactional marriage,” she claimed. “Donald got arm candy … and Melania got two dynamic decades.”

With more than half a billion dollars less to, ahem, transact, it’s hard to see what incentive Melania possibly has to help her husband out.

What a nice, happy family!

Related:

Of course Melania was a no-show at her husband’s big Super Tuesday victory party last night

Where’s Melania?

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