Melania Trump has broken her silence on rumours of marital trouble amid speculation about her husband’s fidelity.
The First Lady’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, criticised a “laundry list of salacious and flat-out false reporting” in an apparent response to claims of an affair between the President and a porn star.
She spoke out after Mrs Trump cancelled plans to join the President at an economic summit in Davos this week. Her decision not to travel was announced on the couple’s 13th wedding anniversary, the day before Mr Trump flew to Switzerland.
Ms Trump’s office cited unspecified "scheduling and logistical issues" for the late change, but speculation swirled that the First Lady was keeping her distance from the US leader. Rumours were fuelled further as the couple’s anniversary passed without public mention by either the President or the First Lady.
The Daily Mail reported Ms Trump spent a number of nights at a Washington DC hotel in the wake of reports of claims by pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with Mr Trump in 2006, shortly after he married.
Hours after the story was published, the First Lady’s director of communications hit back at rumours.
Ms Grisham tweeted: “BREAKING: The laundry list of salacious & flat-out false reporting about Mrs Trump by tabloid publications & TV shows has seeped into ‘main stream media’ reporting.
“She is focused on her family & role as FLOTUS – not the unrealistic scenarios being peddled daily by the fake news.”
On Thursday, the First Lady paid a visit to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in advance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. She later travelled to West Palm Beach in Florida
Ms Trump has joined her husband on his previous foreign trips.
Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Trump’s personal lawyer brokered a $130,000 (£92,000) payment to Daniels in October 2016 to prohibit her from publicly discussing the alleged affair before the election.
The alleged affair supposedly took place four months after Ms Trump gave birth to the couple's only son, Barron.
After the story broke she accompanied the President to his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida but she did not attend two dinners he hosted.
Mr Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, has denied the report.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is scheduled an appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! following the President’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Nikki Halley, the US Ambassador the United Nations, this week denied rumours of an affair with the President. She described the speculation as “highly offensive” and “disgusting”.
The rumours emerged after journalist Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury: A Year Inside the Trump White House, said he was "absolutely sure” the President was having an affair.
