Former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews said on MeidasTouch’s On Sunday with Jack Cocchiarella podcast that she never met Melania Trump during her time working on the campaign and in the White House. Matthews stated she met the vice president, almost every cabinet official, and members of the first family, but not the first lady. She described this as telling and said it was a known thing that Melania Trump did not want to be around.
Matthews claimed Melania Trump did not want to stay at the White House. She said the former model thought the White House was old and falling apart and preferred to be in New York to do her own thing. Matthews resigned from her position following the Jan. 6 riots and has described herself as a Republican in exile. Matthews also cited reports that Melania Trump gets paid for showing up at events on the campaign trail.
She said, “We know too that, it’s been reported, that Melania gets paid for showing up at events when they were on the campaign trail, which is crazy to think that you have to pay your own wife to show up somewhere.” She added, “I wonder if her rate has gone up after all of this news, because I’m sure she doesn’t like any of this being out there, whether or not it’s true.”
Matthews links timing of recent appearance to ongoing news coverage
After more than a month away from the public eye, Melania Trump made a reappearance in the White House Rose Garden for a Fostering the Future event. Matthews said foster care was one of Melania Trump’s passions. She noted the timing appeared a little suspect with all of the Natalie Harp things happening in the news. Earlier accounts described Melania Trump cautioning her husband against sharing his true thoughts on the residence.
A Daily Beast analysis found that Melania Trump appeared publicly once every six days on average, falling to once every 12 days this summer. The same analysis stated she has delivered 29 public speeches during Trump’s second term, compared with 130 by Michelle Obama during the equivalent period. Melania Trump has not traveled beyond the East Coast since July 2025, according to the analysis, while Obama visited all 50 states during her tenure as first lady.
In 2024, CNN reported that Melania Trump received a six-figure payment for one of the few political events she attended that year. Donald Trump’s financial disclosure form listed a $237,500 payment from the Log Cabin Republicans for an April speaking engagement.
Charles Moran, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, told CNN the group did not put up the money for her to speak. The disclosure form did not provide further details on the source of the payment.
Records also showed Melania Trump was paid $250,000 for a Log Cabin Republican event in December 2022. That was one of three payments of $250,000 or more she received for speaking that month, according to a prior financial disclosure form. She was also paid $155,000 by a Trump-aligned super PAC for a speech in Palm Beach, Florida, in December 2021.
Stephanie Grisham, a former Trump White House press secretary and top aide to Melania Trump, told CNN that Melania Trump has been so disconnected with the campaign and so absent that she could see her saying she would get paid if she was going to put her time in.
Grisham said that even in the White House, Melania Trump was concerned about people making money off of her because she felt it was money she should be earning. Past reports have also covered Melania Trump’s input on her husband’s public performances at events. Those accounts included details on Melania’s plea to stop rally dancing.
Campaign finance and government ethics experts told CNN that a payment to a presidential candidate’s spouse to appear at political fundraisers is unusual. Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, said it seems pretty self-serving and that she was not used to seeing that. Canter added that if the organization did not make the payment, the financial disclosure form may not have listed the actual source as required.
Published: Aug 24, 2026 02:00 pm