Melania Scours Media To Protect Trump

Official White House photo

Like President Donald Trump, these people said, Melania Trump is an avid consumer of cable news. She often tracks the news of the day and will alert her husband to stories she thinks make him look bad.

According to Politico, she has raised concerns that some on his communications and press team aren’t doing enough to defend him, according to aides and sources close to the president. She’s been especially troubled by background quotes in which West Wing aides criticize the president, and she’s called the president to discuss it.

Her quiet role as private watchdog is at odds with her public persona. Melania Trump has been seen as generally aloof and removed from her husband's political operation since he announced his campaign in 2015, but as his administration has been consumed by infighting and outside investigations, she's grown increasingly vocal about the perceived shortcomings of staff surrounding the president.

“Melania loves the president unconditionally, definitely, she really cares about the president, she feels a kind of protection,” said her longtime friend and former modeling agent Paolo Zampolli, who introduced the couple in 1998. “The main concern to the president and the first lady is that these leaks are unacceptable.”

Aides and friends of the president describe Melania Trump as one of several people he calls at night to hear how the dysfunction in his White House is playing out beyond the Beltway, including billionaire businessmen Carl Icahn, Rupert Murdoch and Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy.

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