When Donald Trump used another day in court to wish his wife Melania a happy 54th birthday, his former White House Communications Director reduced it to a petty "performance."
And she suspects Melania was rolling her eyes.
"I want to start by wishing my wife Melania a very Happy Birthday," Trump said. "It would be nice to be with her, but I'm in a courthouse for a rigged trial... But I do have to begin by wishing Melania Happy Birthday."
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"She's in Florida," he continued. "I'll be going there this evening after this case finishes up — this horrible, unconstitutional case."
"I rolled my eyes when he did that," said Stephanie Grisham, who served as an aide to Melania. "It was it was so beyond inappropriate, but yet so Donald Trump that on the way into a trial where they are talking about alleged affairs — not one but two — that he had, that he's wishing his wife a happy birthday."
The former president is defending himself against a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records to manipulate the 2016 election by making affair stories disappear.
Grisham, who at one point also served as the former First Lady's spokeswoman before she became the White House mouthpiece, recalled their conversations about how neither of them were "really birthday people" and the memorializing the day every year "wasn't a big deal."
So for Trump to try and stand before the throng of reporters cordoned in a corridor at 100 Centre Street was pure politics, and therefore insincere, she said.
In fact, Grisham said it was "a performance" to "get voters, to try to get those suburban women and those independents because he knows that she's a very, very popular First Lady and that she, you know, that people really like her."
Grisham suspects that Melania is keeping tabs on the trial and like her also found Trump's effort to be desperate stuff.
"It had nothing to do with her and it didn't surprise me at all," said Grisham. "I'm sure she rolled her eyes too because it was just so typical selfish Donald Trump.
But she stressed, there's no way Melania is filling buckets with her tears.
"Make no mistake: she's not sitting home crying over this," said Grisham.
That doesn't mean the humiliation isn't palpable. "But like any woman would be any married woman in a relationship, it's not fun to hear these details."
