Presidential lawyer and headline generator Rudy Giuliani said that first lady Melania Trump “believes her husband” that he didn’t have an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, a statement that is inaccurate in two ways, one of which was pointed out by the first lady’s office.
Speaking at an event in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Giuliani was asked about the first lady’s reaction to the Stormy Daniels saga. “She believes her husband, and she knows it’s untrue,” he said.
President Trump has never publicly denied having an affair with Daniels. (His representatives have.) It’s unclear if Giuliani was talking about his understanding of what Trump has told the first lady privately. But Melania Trump’s office made it clear that Giuliani can’t speak for her beliefs. “I don’t believe Mrs. Trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with Mr. Giuliani,” said Stephanie Grisham, a representative for the first lady, in a statement.
Like the president, the first lady has not made public remarks about Daniels’ allegations (although Grisham has hinted at them). Daniels has said that the president’s fixer, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 weeks before the 2016 election to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she and Trump had in 2006. That matter is now under federal investigation for potential campaign-finance violations.
The first lady’s statement came the day after she reappeared in public for the first time since having a medical procedure 27 days ago and spending a week in the hospital. Her office described it as an embolization to address a benign kidney condition.
But President Trump called that narrative into question on Friday. Before leaving for the G-7 summit, he told reporters that the first lady wasn’t coming along because she had a four-hour operation and had been told by doctors not to fly for a month.
Medical experts say a kidney embolization can take from 30 minutes to three hours. It is usually an outpatient procedure, with the patient allowed to go home the same day. Experts recommend that patients not fly until four to five days after simple abdominal surgery, and 10 days after major abdominal surgery.
