Donald Trump dismisses report claiming Melania wanted him to lose presidential election
The President took to Twitter this morning to write that Ms Trump "always thought that 'if you run, you will win,'" in response to a Vanity Fair story that asserted she did not want or expect to be in the White House.
He referred to Ms Trump as a "great and very hard working First Lady".
Mr Trump tweeted that his wife "truly loves what she is doing," despite the magazine story citing a "longtime friend" of the family saying Ms Trump "didn’t want this come hell or high water."
He then retweeted Ms Trump's official First Lady Twitter account twice in the span of a few minutes - tweets that contained pictures of a smiling Ms Trump with children at the White House and one tweet of a video of her joyfully preparing decorations for the Christmas holiday with staff.
Melania, our great and very hard working First Lady, who truly loves what she is doing, always thought that “if you run, you will win.” She would tell everyone that, “no doubt, he will win.” I also felt I would win (or I would not have run) - and Country is doing great!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2017
The magazine's report said the family friend said: "This isn’t something she wanted and it isn’t something he ever thought he’d win."
However, Mr Trump has asserted in the past and in his tweet today that he felt he would beat Hillary Clinton, which was the reason he entered the race.
Whether she wanted her husband to become leader of the free world or not, the magazine reported that "permanent staff of the White House adore the First Lady. Part of the affection may be due to the fact that, unlike the Obamas, Melania is accustomed to dealing with a staff."
Of course, Mr Trump has not been a fan of most media coverage of his presidency, less so of his family; he frequently uses the term "fake news" in tweets and speeches.
And Ms Trump launched a fierce rebuttal of the Vanity Fair report on Monday night. A statement to CNN from a spokesperson for the First Lady said the story was "riddled with unnamed sources and false assertions".
"As a magazine tailored to women it is shameful that they continue to write salacious and false stories meant to demean Ms Trump, rather than focus on her positive work as First Lady as a supportive wife and mother," it added.
The First Lady has been surrounded by her own share of controversy since Mr Trump began his presidential bid.
She stood by her husband when the now-infamous "Entertainment Tonight" audio leaked of Mr Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women and saying "when you're a celebrity they let you do anything" during the campaign.
There were also nude images of Ms Trump that splashed the cover of the New York Post at the height of the campaign, remnants of her former modelling career.
Family friends have said that now the First Lady's focus is shielding their young son Barron from any further "unfriendly" media coverage of his parents.
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