U.S. first lady Melania Trump looks on as she hosts a roundtable event on the second day of the inaugural Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
Bulwark podcaster Tim Miller and Crooked Media writer Jane Coaston struggled to understand the intent behind First Lady Melania Trump’s Thursday press conference denying her ties to convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“No one was asking about this,” Coaston told Miller. “I was kind of aware that there was an email, but I was like, you know, there's a lot of emails in there. … There are other people, other fish metaphorically to fry in his emails. No one was like, ‘let's really focus on Melania’s personal connection], but now I … I have so many questions.”
Miller said the First Lady did herself no favors by lying about her confirmed connection to Epstein in the middle of her presser when she claimed “I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, [Ghislaine] Maxwell.”
“This is not true,” Miller pointed out. “… That's not right, actually. She emailed Maxwell proactively and used some terms of affection. She signed it ‘love Melania.’”
“It's one of those truisms in communications that if somebody levels an accusation against you that is untrue and you're pushing back against it, you're not supposed to repeat the accusation,” added Miller, a former Republican strategist and a speechwriter for George Bush. “This is like crisis communications 101 because then ... people have video of you repeating the thing that you're saying that you didn't do. ‘I did not know Epstein. I was not Epstein victim.’ I mean, she talks about Epstein and Maxwell more than anyone from the administration has talked about them for the entire term.”
Meanwhile, Melania Trump’s presser has the adverse effect of dredging up other salacious revelations about the Trump/Epstein/Melania triumvirate, including the fact that Melania was only 17 when she was introduced to Trump — who’s name saturates the notorious underage sex-trafficker’s criminal case. And also that Trump was married at the time of her introduction.
“I met my husband by chance at the New York City party in 1998,” said Melania Trump, without mentioning that Trump was already somebody’s husband.
Miller suspects Melania gave the impromptu press conference in response to alleged social media posts by Amanda Ungaro, “her old modeling friend who was ... procured by [Italian modeling agent Paolo Zampolli] when she was underage and then married [Zampolli] and was since deported by [Zampolli] using [Zampolli’s] access to Trump.”
Zampolli is now the Trump administration’s special envoy for global partnership and allegedly used those ties to deport Ungaro over a custody battle.
“That woman [Ugaro] is aggrieved. And apparently has some things to say,” said Miller.
“And you would have done none of this research … if Melania Trump had not said, ‘you know what? We should talk about this — but we should also not talk about this,’” said Coaston.
“I would not be currently following Amanda Ungaro on social media if it was not for that press conference,” agreed Miller. “... I would not have seen those tweets talking about how she will ‘go all the way’ to ensure that people know who Melania is and who her husband is and what they did back in their playboy days.”