Melania reportedly called Donald Trump after every rally to tell him how ‘wonderful and great’ he is

‘She was always his first phone call,’ claims former adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff

Former US first lady Melania Trump was reportedly the first to call Donald Trump after every campaign event to praise him.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, 50, a former adviser and friend of Ms Trump, told the Hollywood Life podcast on Monday that the former first lady would call Mr Trump after every public event to give him an ego boost.

“I believe their way of showing affection towards one another is her telling him how wonderful and great he is,” Ms Winston Wolkoff said.

“She was always his first phone call, always, no matter where she was. And the first thing he’d say was: 'Hey Baby, how'd I do?' Like he wants her approval,'” she added.

Even though Ms Trump was absent from several events on the 2020 presidential campaign trail, Ms Winston Wolkoff claimed that she still would have been supporting him from the White House.

“She tells him how it is but she also makes sure to elevate him and embrace what he’s doing, because that is who she is,” she said during her podcast appearance.

Ms Winston Wolkoff, who released a memoir of her time working for Ms Trump named Melania & Me in September, fell out with the former first lady in 2017 and the two cut ties in 2018.

However, Ms Winston Wolkoff still spoke fondly of Ms Trump in her book, and said her seemingly shy persona with the press is a personality she puts on in public.

The 50-year-old wrote that Ms Trump would sometimes appear aloof as part of an effort to “shine the light over here so you don’t see what’s going on over there.”

Speaking on the podcast, Ms Winston Wolkoff said that she wrote the book to change the narrative in the press that Ms Trump was distant.

“Throughout the years, Melania controlled her image, created her fairytale narrative, and remained an enigma, which enabled her to play make believe.

“I felt it my civic duty to stop protecting her and to unearth the ‘most mysterious First Lady,’ the world has ever known,” she said.  

“By sharing my history with her, I unmasked her true identity and revealed an unvarnished portrait of a woman whose veneer I’ve stripped off, leaving nothing but an ‘unapologetically, skin-deep’ woman,” Ms Winston Wolkoff added.

Mr Trump was mocked on social media several times during his presidency, as multiple videos showed Ms Trump pull her hand away from him when he attempted to hold it.

This led some to speculate that their marriage was in trouble. However, Ms Winston Wolkoff claims that the pair are in love and said Ms Trump’s reluctance to hold her husband’s hand was more of a distraction from “what’s going on.”

She added: “I didn’t realise that, but when you see their eye contact and the seduction through that gaze, it’s more about that than I think anything else.”

The Independent has contacted Ms Trump for comment.