A journalist who wrote a detailed profile of Melania Trump and which the Republican frontrunner’s wife complained about, has been subjected to a barrage of anti-Semitic abuse.
Julia Ioffe, a respected New York reporter who has written for the New York Times magazine and the New Republic, wrote a lengthy feature of the potential next First Lady for GQ.
In the article, which featured an interview with Mr Trump’s third wife, Ms Ioffe painted a portrait of a reclusive, restrained woman, who had first met the tycoon in 1998 at a New York Fashion Week party, when she was aged 28.
The piece also contained an interview with her half-brother, whom she has never met, and reported suggestions the former model had undergone breast enlargement in order to obtain more swimwear modeling assignments, a claim Ms Trump told Ms Ioffe was not true. Many readers believed the article was generally positive.
Earlier this week, Ms Trump posted a message on Facebook criticising the article, saying it contained a number of inaccuracies and claiming that the writer was was “looking to make a name for herself.”
“I am hopeful that the media will begin to cover me fairly and be respectful of my family's privacy,” she added.
Mr Ioffe told CBS that the article had been deeply researched and that she believed Ms Trump was a person worthy of journalistic scrutiny given that her husband could be the next occupant of the White House.
“I think she’s understandably upset that some dirty laundry came out. But I did my job,” she said,
Ms Ioffe, who is Jewish, said on social media that she had revived a barrage of abuse and attacks after the article appeared.
She said the attacks amounted to a “an endless torrent of vile, timeless hate.”
The journalist, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment, wrote on Twitter: “Now I'm getting phone calls from a blocked number that play Hitler’s speeches when I pick up. Sad.”
In another post, she added: “For those among you who appreciate irony: my family arrived in the US (legally) 26 years ago today. We were fleeing anti-Semitism.”
Mr Trump’s campaign to secure the Republican presidential nomination has been marred by accusations of intolerance and xenophobia.
A number of protesters have been attacked at his rallies, and the New York property tycoon has spoken out against Muslims and immigrants from Mexico, who he said were “rapists and murderers”.
