Melania Trump aide blasts ‘salacious’ reports amid Stormy Daniels controversy

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A spokeswoman for Melania Trump lashed out at the “laundry list of salacious & flat-out false reporting” about the first lady on Friday as allegations of a past extramarital affair by President Donald Trump have grabbed headlines.

It was unclear what specific report the first lady’s team was responding to. But several articles in recent days have linked her absence on the president’s overseas trip to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to allegations that Donald Trump had sex with a former adult film actress in 2006 shortly after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron.

A CNN report published Thursday noted that the first lady had endured “a difficult start to 2018” as outlets covered claims, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, that the president’s longtime personal lawyer paid Stephanie Clifford, a porn star who performs under the name Stormy Daniels, $130,000 before the 2016 election as part of a nondisclosure agreement to cover up the affair.

On Friday, the Daily Mail tabloid further connected the dots, writing that the first lady was staying at a “posh D.C. hotel away from President Trump” in response to the allegations of an affair.

POLITICO on Friday also published an interview with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, in which she dismissed rumors that she was having an affair with the president as “highly offensive” and “disgusting.”

Stephanie Grisham, communications director for the first lady, pushed back against media coverage of the East Wing in a tweet on Friday.

“The laundry list of salacious & flat-out false reporting about Mrs. Trump by tabloid publications & TV shows has seeped into ‘main stream media’ reporting,” she wrote. “She is focused on her family & role as FLOTUS — not the unrealistic scenarios being peddled daily by the fake news.”

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