Donald Trump biographer Michael Wolff says there's a single person inside the president's orbit that nobody in the White House can predict or manage — and she has administration insiders on edge.
In a new column for his Substack newsletter, HOWL, Wolff argues that Melania Trump has become an unnervingly unpredictable force, and that her recent remarks addressing the Jeffrey Epstein controversy — in which she denied any relationship with the late financier — only deepened staffers' unease.
“Of all the self-dealing among Trump family members, Melania’s moves—not just about money, but about calling attention to herself—are seen as most disturbing to the White House, and most in danger of putting her on a collision course with the president,” Wolff, who spent time inside Trump's first White House, wrote
According to Wolff, aides largely believe the first lady is unlikely to use her leverage in any way that would openly threaten the president's standing. But he says they can't be certain of that, and he claims the marriage itself is strained, describing it as arguably at its rockiest point since the Stormy Daniels hush money trial.
Wolff goes further in his Substack, which was reported on by the Daily Beast, alleging that the couple barely speaks and that there's little effort to even maintain the appearance that Melania resides at the White House full-time — a claim that lines up with prior reporting that she spends much of her time in New York rather than Washington.
“Almost nobody near Trump—including Trump himself—knows Melania’s moves until she makes them,” Wolff wrote.
“Trump’s political vulnerabilities lie in plain sight—the grift, his violations of the law, the dubiousness of his associates, and the questions about his own physical and mental health."
“But aides, lawyers, doctors, congressional leaders, and billionaires, all depending on his favor, have so far been willing to participate in one of history’s greatest stonewall efforts. His wife, freer now and more distant than she ever has been from him in their marriage, is a wild card that he can’t seem to control or even game.”
Money is part of the anxiety too, Wolff writes. He claims aides are more rattled by the first lady's business activity and self-promotion than by any deal-making from Trump's adult children.
That business activity has drawn real scrutiny. A 927-page financial disclosure released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on June 30 showed that even though Melania's documentary bombed at the box office — pulling in just $16.7 million worldwide against a $75 million licensing deal with Jeff Bezos' Amazon MGM Studios — the Trumps still collected $10.71 million from the film's licensing agreement. Melania also pocketed roughly $521,000 from her 2024 memoir.
Asked for comment, White House spokesman Davis Ingle offered a blunt dismissal, calling Wolff "a lying piece of s--t."