Why Melania's Case Terrifies Team Trump: Wolff

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News & Politics

4.6 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to probe the growing mystery around Melania Trump — the first lady who rarely appears, rarely speaks, and yet increasingly shapes the atmosphere around Donald Trump. Wolff explores why Melania’s absence feels deliberate, how lawsuits and the threat of depositions have sharpened attention on her, and why Trump’s team appears determined to keep her out of reach of process servers and cameras alike. Wolff examines why discovery terrifies Trumpworld more than accusation, why Melania’s distance reads like leverage, and how one reluctant witness can destabilize a carefully managed narrative. If the quietest person in Trump’s orbit may also be the one who knows the most, what happens when the courts — not the campaign — decide who gets to ask the questions?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	One of the things that we have been trying to do is to serve the first lady.
0:06.0	Hit her with papers and saying, you're served. That's hard to do.
0:10.0	Well, this past week, we went into court, and so we've asked the court to essentially deem her served.
0:19.0	This is almost pro forma that the court would say, yes, she served,
0:22.4	and you can continue your litigation. But before the court said that, they finally responded to us
0:30.6	because they went into court to ask that our suit be moved from the New York courts to the federal courts.
0:39.4	That's a delay tactic, which means that we have to start the service process all over again.
0:49.8	Michael, happy new year.
0:52.2	Joanna, glad to see you back.
0:54.1	Is it possible you haven't moved from that chair since we last talked to? Michael, happy new year. Joanna, glad to see you back.
0:58.7	Is it possible you haven't moved from that chair since we last talked to each other?
1:02.1	I haven't moved from this chair in 30 years.
1:08.0	Well, well, well, what an extraordinary year 2025 was.
1:12.0	And I guess my first question for you, because why wouldn't we get straight into it,
1:16.0	is was 2025 peak Trump?
1:19.0	Yes.
1:22.3	Is it all, is 2026 downhill?
1:31.8	I, you know, I think it's, I think it's downhill from here for Donald Trump.
1:32.4	Yep. And I think we can move into words like crumbling.
1:37.8	Because this always happens in second terms, number one.
1:48.0	Number two, the reverse side of being so successful, and by successful, I mean,
1:58.8	dominating in the first year is that everything he does now catches up to him.
	...

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