The Slatest

Melania Trump Blasts Ivana Trump After She Calls Herself “First Lady”

Ivana Trump attends a party in on Dec. 1, 2015, in Miami Beach, Florida.

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for DuJour

First lady Melania Trump was none too happy about how President Donald Trump’s first wife, Ivana Trump, called herself “first lady” in an interview, and Melania had her publicist slam her for the comments, deriding them as “attention-seeking and self-serving noise.” In the end, of course, Melania Trump only helped Ivana Trump get the publicity she wants to promote her tell-all memoir, Raising Trump.

During an interview with ABC News on Monday, Ivana Trump said she had a “direct number” to her ex-husband and speaks to him about once every two weeks. “I [don’t] really want to call him there, because Melania is there,” she said. “And I don’t want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that, because I’m basically first Trump wife. OK? I’m first lady.” She was laughing when she said it, making it clear she wasn’t seriously calling herself the first lady of the United States.

The words though seem to have hit a nerve with the first lady, who responded with a sharply worded statement. “Mrs. Trump has made the White House a home for Barron and the president. She loves living in Washington, DC, and is honored by her role as first lady of the United States. She plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books,” Melania Trump’s communications director, Stephanie Grisham, said. “There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex, this is unfortunately only attention-seeking and self-serving noise.”

Trump is currently on a promotional tour for her book that delves into details about her 1977 to 1992 marriage to Trump as well as their messy divorce. In an interview with Time published Sunday, Ivana Trump said she could restore order in the White House in two weeks. “Could I straighten out the White House in 14 days?” she said. “Of course. Can I go and give the speech without a teleprompter for 45 minutes? Of course. Can I entertain? Of course I can entertain. But it is just not something I would like to do.” She even said that she had been offered the U.S. ambassadorship to the Czech Republic and Trump was fine with it, but she declined because she likes her current life too much.