US Elections 2020: Melania Trump's secret recordings leaked, first lady fumes at former adviser

First Lady Melania Trump's secretly recorded audio tapes were played on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" in which the first lady voiced her frustrations over being expected to perform official duties and for being criticised over her husband's policy of separating families who illegally crossed the border. 

The tape was recorded by Melania's former friend and senior advisor to the first lady,  Stephanie Winston Wolkoff — who wrote a book on their relationship titled "Melania and Me — leaving Melania fuming. 

"They say I'm complicit. I'm the same like him, I support him. I don't say enough I don't do enough where I am," she can be heard on the tape saying.

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The tape was recorded by Wolkoff after she left the White House.

"I'm working ... my a** off on the Christmas stuff, that you know, who gives a f*** about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right?"

"OK, and then I do it and I say that I'm working on Christmas and planning for the Christmas and they said, 'Oh, what about the children that they were separated?' Give me a f****** break. Where they were saying anything when Obama did that? I can not go, I was trying get the kid reunited with the mom. I didn't have a chance -- needs to go through the process and through the law," she continued.

The Obama policy that Melania was referring to in the tape was the one during the previous administration when a child could only be separated from his/her parents when authorities were concerned about their well-being or when it could not be confirmed as to who the child's parents were.

Compared to that, the Trump administration's policy was a blanket one until a judge forced the government to stop doing so.

Stephanie Grisham, Melania's Chief of Staff, reacted angrily to the recordings, said that the secret taping of the first lady and breaking an NDA to publish a book on their relationship was "is a clear attempt at relevance."

"The timing of this continues to be suspect - as does this never-ending exercise in self-pity and narcissism," she said in a statement.

'They didn't have that in their own countries'

In yet another recording, Melania can be heard emphasizing the reaction of migrant children brought "by coyotes" as evidence of the detention centers' quality and "the way they take care of them."

"The kids, they say, 'Wow I will have my own bed? I will sleep on the bed? I will have a cabinet for my clothes?' It's so sad to hear it but they didn't have that in their own countries, they sleep on the floor," she says. "They are taken care of nicely there. But you know, yeah, they are not with parents, it's sad. But when they come here alone or with coyotes or illegally, you know, you need to do something."

She also mimicked and doubted the accounts of some immigrants who said they faced danger back home after illegally crossing over into the US.

"A lot of like moms and kids they are teached how to do it. They go over and they say like, 'Oh, we will be killed by a gang member, we will be, you know, it's so dangerous,' " she says on the tape. "So they are allowed to stay here."

"It's not true that they would, you know what I mean," Trump said, adding that "they're not professional but they are teached by other people what to say to come over and to you know let them go to stay here. Because they could easily stay in Mexico but they don't want to stay in Mexico because Mexico doesn't take care of them the same as America does."

Wolkoff says Melania stepped in line with the government's agenda after initial "maternal instincts".

"She steps in line and she just decides that what she has heard and what she's been told is what the rule of law is in our country."

Wolkoff, who was a staffer for The Vogue back in the day, has known Melania Trump for more than a decade. The two operated in similar circles while they lived in New York and have been closed over the past several years.

Wolkoff was hired first as a senior adviser to the first lady, and also wrote speeches for her.

However, her relationship with the US president fell apart after an investigation into inaugural activities allegedly revealed the amount of money Wolkoff and her events firm allegedly pocketed during the planning and execution of the inauguration.