Melania Trump confidant plans tell-all book

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former confidant to first lady Melania Trump who served as a leading organizer for President Trump’s 2017 inauguration, is set to release a tell-all book later this year, according to multiple reports. 

The book, titled “Melania and Me,” will be released on Sept. 1 by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Vanity Fair reported on Monday. Its story will begin more than a decade ago when Winston Wolkoff became friends with the future first lady and continue through her time as an organizer for the president’s inauguration festivities and as an adviser to his wife. 

“In her memoir, Wolkoff chronicles her journey from their friendship that started in New York to her role as the First Lady’s trusted advisor to her abrupt and very public departure, to life after Washington, being an advocate for children’s and women’s causes,” a description of the book reads, according to Vanity Fair.

The book is largely critical of the first lady, the Daily Beast reported.

Winston Wolkoff has previously said that she was “thrown under the bus” by the Trump administration after the inaugural committee’s spending came under scrutiny in 2018. The committee raised a record $107 million for the inauguration, approximately twice as much as former Presidents Obama and George W. Bush. 

Winston Wolkoff’s own event planning firm reportedly received millions from the inaugural committee.

U.S. attorneys with the Southern District of New York previously subpoenaed President Trump’s inaugural committee over an investigation into potential illegal contributions from foreigners. The D.C. attorney general also launched a lawsuit against the committee, alleging that it improperly used nonprofit funds to pay “exorbitant” prices at the president’s hotel. 

And New Jersey’s attorney general reportedly filed its own subpoena against the panel last year, seeking information on whether Trump donors got special benefits.

Winston Wolkoff reportedly raised concerns with the president and first lady about the inauguration committee’s spending.

She was publicly dismissed in February 2018 after serving as an unpaid adviser to the first lady for more than a year. She told The New York Times that her contract ended after the White House counsel decided to halt business arrangements with contractors like her.

Winston Wolkoff said she was told that her removal was not related to inauguration spending. She added that “a decision was made to state publicly that I had been ‘severed.’ That was not fair or accurate.” 

Winston Wolkoff argued that the decision was made because the White House was seeking to cut down on negative news stories on the inaugural spending. 

The Hill has reached out to the White House and Gallery Books for comment.