Melania Trump left media outlets on both sides of the aisle thoroughly confused Thursday after she gave an unexpected statement denying alleged ties to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
“The lies linking me to the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” the first lady stated in her address from the White House. “I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice Maxwell. My email reply to Maxwell cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence.”
Trump’s statement baffled journalists for both left and right-wing media, as there were no Epstein-related headlines plaguing her or the news cycle at the time of the address, raising questions of why she felt the need to speak out and draw attention back to the Epstein files after weeks of stagnancy.
“To be clear, nothing about Melania Trump was the Epstein headline that was dogging Donald Trump in the days immediately leading up to the start of the war he began with Iran,” MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace said during Thursday’s “Deadline: White House.” “In those days, it was news of a woman who alleged sexual and physical assault by Donald Trump when she was a child. That story was all over the news, including in right-wing outlets. Importantly, it’s a story that Donald Trump denies. But today, for reasons that aren’t completely clear, Melania Trump grabbed the Klieg lights and thrust them back, not just to Donald Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, but her own.”
Later on, Wallace pondered, “Why did she say those things? And why today?”
Her guests, MS NOW reporter Jackie Alemany, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and the New York Times’ White House correspondent Luke Broadwater, were unable to provide any additional insight.
In fact, Alemany, who spoke with Trump just before going on the air, said the president told her that even he “had no prior knowledge to the topic that Melania Trump, his wife, was going to be touching upon today.”
Watch the “Deadline: White House” commentary below:
Journalists for Fox News, including Jacqui Heinrich, were equally confused by the first lady’s attempt to distance herself from Epstein and Maxwell.
“We’ve been trying to understand why she made it today, if there was something that she is reacting to that might already be in the news that has upset her, or if there is a story that’s about to come out and she wanted to get ahead of,” Heinrich said. “Because it did feel like it came out of left field. For us, the Epstein story writ large has not been above the fold, so to speak, for quite a while. The attention here has been on other matters.”
As Heinrich went on, she noted that Trump’s team was not giving any context or background on what prompted the statement. Instead, Heinrich was told by the first lady’s camp that they were going to “let her comments stand on their own.”
She added: “We’re still trying to figure out why she made the statement today. I’ve called every contact in my phone, including the president, and have not gotten any answers.”
Fox News Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich: We’ve been trying to understand why she made it today, if there was something that she is reacting to that may already be in the news that has upset her, or if there is a story that’s about to come out and she wanted to get ahead of…… pic.twitter.com/msnl8qA9kA
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 9, 2026
Yet, as media for both the left and the right attempted to piece together the reason for this broadcasted address, Daily Beast released a report Thursday afternoon claiming they had obtained voice recordings of Epstein boasting about his relationship with Trump and Melania.
Per the outlet, Epstein told journalist Michael Wolff, who spoke at length with the disgraced businessman for his book, “Fire and Fury,” that he was Trump’s “closest friend for 10 years.”
He also allegedly claimed that the president slept with the first lady for the first time on his private plane, which is known as the “Lolita Express.”
Daily Beast also highlighted that the first lady’s 2002 email exchange with Maxwell, which was released in the DOJ’s Epstein files drop, saw her sign off the note: “Love, Melania.” Additionally, Maxwell’s response had her calling the first lady “Sweet pea.”
Nonetheless, Trump’s wife was adamant Thursday that she did not have a relationship with Epstein, clarifying that the deceased child sex offender did not introduce her to her husband.
“Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since over overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach,” she stated. “I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband, by chance, at a New York City party in 1998.”
The first lady continued: “The first time I crossed paths with Epstein was in the year 2000 at an event Donald and I attended together. At the time, I had never met Epstein and had no knowledge of his criminal undertakings. Numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me have been calculating [sic] on social media for years now. Be cautious about what you believe.”
