One of President Donald Trump's biographers has been in his own legal conflict with Melania Trump, but on Thursday night, Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles couldn't help but notice the first lady's week of flops.
Speaking on the Daily Beast podcast, the two began with Mrs. Trump's appearance on Fox Business, where the hosts fawned over how excited they were to be in her presence.
"Madam First Lady, thank you so much for being here. We're beaming and in your presence. We just cannot thank you enough for joining us," one of the co-hosts said.
"Oh my god! I mean, I don't think they knew what to say," said Wolff. "It's like. I mean, they obviously this was set up. Obviously they were assigned to do this. Obviously. They were stuck. I mean, this is their job. And they had to, they had to make the most of this."
Coles said that the hosts seemed bewildered at the idea that Melania Trump, was there when she's "barely been visible" over the past two years of the administration. She noted that the Daily Beast has audited the number of public events of first ladies over the century and that Mrs. Trump is by far doing the least among them.
"And we know that she's made a third fewer appearances than certainly than Michelle Obama. And she's the least visible First Lady of the entire century," Coles said.
Wolff mocked that Fox said, "You do so much. We can't believe how hard you work." He said it was "staggering" to say, given how far from reality it is.
Coles noted how unusual it is that Mrs. Trump is never seen with female friends. Her last known female friend was Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, whom the administration trashed after the work she did during the first inauguration. Winston Wolkoff ran the Met Gala for Vogue for a decade, but Mrs. Trump "dragged her name."
"So, that was Melania's last known friend, I think, and it's impossible to think of her with female friends," Coles said.
The two moved to discuss Mrs. Trump's new initiative, which is supposed to be the "Davos for women," which she is calling "Imperia." It is also a province in Italy. Davos is a resort town in Switzerland.
"You don't have to learn this because we will never hear from it again," Wolff assured. "I mean, this is as much a sham as her marriage is."
"But it's not a DEI thing," Coles said. "Definitely not DEI."
"Oh! No, they went out of their way. This is not DEI," said Wolff.
"But what are they talking about?" Wolff asked. "But it was literally everybody there saying, 'Please God, take me.' Why am I here?"
They then moved on to mock her outfits, saying that at one point Mrs. Trump appeared to be cosplaying as the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
"I think she's trying to make herself look serious," Coles said. "Anyway, watch this space for more developments of Melania frantically networks."
"There is really — it's not even frantic," Wolff said. "She'll do this. She got — she got her clip. She'll go away. We'll never hear from this again. She doesn't care."
They expect she'll be working on her Amazon series and creating content and video for that show.
"I mean she's not going to set up a Davos for women," Wolff said. "I mean this is preposterous. I mean, everything she said ... was as though AI-generated. What was she talking about? She's talking — and the answer is she's talking about nothing!"
However, Coles noted, Mrs. Trump has managed to profit off of her husband's time in the White House.
