Melania 'ushering Trump to the exit' and trying 'not to go down with' his sinking ship
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U.S. first lady Melania Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
Conservative Bill Kristol is equating Melania Trump to a rat fleeing a sinking ship.
Speculation continues to spread about why the first lady made a public statement on Thursday disputing that she knew trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Some wonder if there's a report about to drop about her, others wonder if it was an extremely delayed reaction to her email to Ghislaine Maxwell being exposed in the files and another group wonders if she'd finally had it with photos of her and Epstein circulating on social media.
"...Rats instinctively leave a sinking ship," Kristol said. "Yesterday, Melania Trump made her move to quit the rotten carcass of her husband’s presidency."
Kristol noticed that Melania's focus was on herself, never even mentioning her husband's troubles.
"Left unsaid, but not unimplied, was that none of these claims could be made about her husband," the Bulwark columnist said. "He was a pal of Epstein’s. He was on Epstein’s plane. His relationship with Epstein, as exemplified, for example, in his contribution to Epstein’s birthday book, was more than 'casual' or 'trivial.'"
Reports revealed that President Donald "Trump didn't know anything" about her address. In fact, even some of her own staffers weren't aware of what she intended to say.
At the close of her speech, the first lady mentioned that she wants to see the survivors be heard publicly and have their stories entered into the congressional record. While some may be unwilling to speak publicly, others may appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight in a moment of national attention.
Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips told CNN that the close of the statement was "huge." She added that no one has called for the survivors to speak publicly to Congress.
"So the Epstein investigation is not, as her husband has asserted, a 'hoax,'" commented Kristol. "Nor is it yet time, as her husband has said, to move on. The truth hasn’t yet been uncovered, and we need to uncover it. And if doing so leads more 'prominent male executives' to resign, so be it. One wonders: Could Melania have one prominent male chief executive in mind?"
He noted that Mrs. Trump may not be an intellectual genius but that she's certainly "no fool." Somehow, he's managed to rise to the top without having her husband's scandals drag her down. "And now she seems to think that the man to whom she hitched herself may be going down. She’s trying to arrange not to go down with him," surmised Kristol.
Perhaps, he wondered, Mrs. Trump was signaling to everyone that it was time to abandon ship. "And if Donald Trump leaves the public stage sooner rather than later, then I stand ready to applaud Melania Trump for her role in ushering Donald Trump to the exit," Kristol closed.