Melania Trump’s senior adviser, Marc Beckman, went on “Fox & Friends” on Friday to try to explain the first lady’s extremely weird Thursday press conference about Jeffrey Epstein, but did not illuminate why she chose to read a six-minute statement saying she had no connections to the accused sex trafficker.
The statement she read was essentially just a really long version of the famous Mariah Carey “I don’t know her” gif, with Melania denying any meaningful connection to Epstein or to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and then not taking any questions from the assembled press.
Besides saying she never had any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of his victims, she made sure to slam the shadowy unnamed cabal of haters who are telling lies about her.
“The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility, and respect,” Melania said. “I do not object to their ignorance, but rather, I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation.”
Beckman, who is also somehow one of the producers of the first lady’s vanity documentary along with being her adviser, said she spoke out because “She’s ready to fight” and that “it’s time for the public to refocus their attention on what achievements our first lady has done.”
Come on. Melania has a fake job helming her “Foster the Future” initiative—for The Children, of course. However, at a two-day conference that she was supposedly running, she stayed for seven minutes on Day 1 and showed up briefly, inexplicably, with a robot on Day 2.
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Melania did address an email she’d once sent to Maxwell, saying it “cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence.”
The famously indifferent first lady didn’t specify which email, but it seems likely it was this one from 2002, which was released months ago.
“Dear G, how are you?” the email read. “Nice story about JE in New York Mag. You look great on the picture. I know you are very busy flying all over the world. How was Palm Beach? I cannot wait to go down. Give me a call when you are back in New York. Have a great time. Love, Melania.”
The first lady also decided to functionally demand that Epstein’s victims appear before Congress.
“Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public, if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the Congressional Record,” Melania intoned. “Then, and only then, will we have the truth.”
Melania didn’t exactly clear that with those victims. Thirteen of the women who hve accused Epstein of abuse issued a statement saying that “Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony. Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice.”
Melania also didn’t clear it with Trump, who straight-up denied that he knew his wife was going to hold her little press conference and also said that Melania “didn’t know” Epstein.
Buddy, there is a literal picture of you and Melania hanging with Epstein and Maxwell.
One possibility: Melania was trying to get ahead of some news about Amanda Ungaro and Paolo Zampolli. Zampolli, a longtime Trump associate, asked ICE to do him a solid and get Ungaro deported so that he could prevail in a custody battle over their son.
Zampolli has long claimed he introduced Melania to Donald, and Ungaro was still hanging out with Melania as late as the 2017 inauguration. But Zampolli is in the Epstein files a bunch, and once discussed buying a modeling agency with Epstein.
He also met Ungaro thanks to Epstein, after she flew from Paris to New York on his plane in 2002, when she was 17. Later that year, she met Zampolli, who was 32—but hey, he totally did not date her until she was 19, you guys.
But though Zampolli succeeded in getting Ungaro deported to Brazil, she still has her X account. On Wednesday, she posted to Melania that she would “take legal action against you and your pedophile husband.” She also reminded Melania of their long friendship.
“I have known you for 20 years. You knew I was detained in ICE. You were present in my life — every year on my son’s birthday, even sending Secret Service and being the first to congratulate him, back in 2016,” Ungaro wrote.
On Thursday, Ungaro stepped up her posting game, telling Melania, “I will tear down your corrupt system, even if it’s the last thing I do in my life. I will go all the way—I am not afraid. Maybe you should be afraid of what I know… of who you are, and who your husband is.”
So, the math checks out, as Ungaro’s post hit at midnight on Thursday, and Melania’s surprise press conference happened only about 13 hours later.
Now, no one except Beckman is talking, and all he’s doing is lavishing completely untrue praise on Melania and telling us we all need to straighten up and fly right.
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“We as a society need to get back to respect, and certainly, our first lady, the first lady of the United States, deserves respect,” her flack insisted. “When she’s out there working every single day for Americans, helping children, helping families, driving to make this country better, that’s what she deserves for people to pay attention to, not this nonsense.”
This is as ridiculous as when all of Donald Trump’s Cabinet members try to one-up each other in how much they can fawn over the embattled president.
If you’d like to know more, too bad. Melania said that any questions about whether Trump knew about her statement in advance should be addressed to the West Wing, but the White House directed questions back to her.
So, it could be that Melania came forward to try to get ahead of Ungaro spilling the tea, or it could be for some other reason that only made sense in Melania’s brain. But no matter what, we can rest assured that everyone in Trump’s orbit will keep spinning to protect him at all costs.
Lisa Needham April 10, 2026 at 11:30PM From Daily Kos
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