Melania Trump’s Former Friend Says ‘There’s Nothing’ in Blistering New Tell-All ‘That I Can’t Back Up’

Author Stephanie Winston Wolkoff appeared on ABC News on Monday morning, assuring viewers that there are no lies in her new tell-all book about her friendship with First Lady Melania Trump. The White House has been pre-emptively condemning Wolkoff and her book as a set of lies meant to discredit the Trump administration. Wolkoff told reporters: “I can back up everything that’s in the book, 100 percent.”

Wolkoff’s main work has been as an event planner, through which she has known the first lady for almost two decades. However, the two eventually had a personal falling out, spurring Wolkoff to write her new book Melania and Me. Wolkoff’s book is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, and she believes it traces Melania’s metamorphosis in a way that is relevant even outside of their friendship.

“The Melania I first met versus the Melania there is today is a very different person,” Wolkoff said on Monday. Wolkoff was with Melania throughout her transition into the White House, and even spent some time with her in the East Wing. She ultimately left the First Lady’s administration in 2018 but said that even that part of the story has been widely mischaracterized.

“Was I fired? No. Did I personally receive $26 million or $1.6 million? No. Was I thrown under the bus? Yes,” Wolkoff told The New York Times last year.

So far, excerpts from Wolkoff’s book have generated widespread attention as reviewers get an early look at her stories. Two anecdotes, in particular, have been making the headlines: one concerning the first lady’s frequent clashes with the president’s eldest daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump. According to Walkoff, Melania and her staff were dead set on a secret mission called “Operation Block Ivanka.”

The other story raising eyebrows from Wolkoff’s book is how Melania responded to President Donald Trump‘s infamous Access Hollywood tape in 2016, where he openly discussed sexually assaulting models. Wolkoff said that Melania was not concerned by the scandal.

“Now, if any other human being or any other one of my friends, I would have expected to see them in tears, right? She was smiling was as if nothing happened,” Wolkoff told ABC. “And I swear to you, I had like a glitch in my brain, ’cause I was like — is this really happening at this moment, is it surreal that her husband just came out and said these horrible things?”

Wolkoff’s book, Melania and Me is available for pre-order now. It will be available everywhere books are sold on Tuesday, Sept. 1.