Melania fires back at Ivana over ‘first lady’ comment

Ivana Trump said she should be considered the “first lady” because she was President Trump‘s first wife, prompting a stinging rebuke from third wife and current first lady Melania Trump that the remark was “attention-seeking and self-serving noise.”

Ivana, the mother of Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric, said she has a line to the White House but tries not to call Trump too often because it makes Melania Trump jealous.

“I have the direct number to White House, but I no really want to call him there because Melania is there,” Ivana told ABC’s “Good Morning America”during an interview on Monday. “I don’t want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that because I’m basically first Trump wife.”

Melania Trump immediately shot down Ivana Trump’s comments.

“Mrs. Trump has made the White House a home for Barron and the President. She loves living in Washington, DC, and is honored by her role as first lady of the United States. She plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books,” spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement to CNN. “There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex, this is unfortunately only attention-seeking and self-serving noise.”
Ivana Trump, 68, who married Donald Trump in 1977 and divorced him in 1992, has been making the rounds of talk shows to promote her memoir, “Raising Trump,” which was published on Tuesday.

Despite her comment that she should could carry the mantle of “first lady,” Ivana Trump said she really wouldn’t be happy in the White House and wouldn’t be willing to change places with Melania.

“I think for her to be in Washington must be terrible,” Ivana Trump said. “It’s better her than me. I would hate Washington.”

But then she took a veiled shot at the first lady’s White House role.

“Would I straighten up the White House in 14 days? Absolutely. Can I give the speech for 45 minutes without [a] teleprompter? Absolutely. Can I read a contract? Can I negotiate? Can I entertain? Absolutely. But I would not really like to be there. I like my freedom,” she said.

Ivana also takes “full credit” for raising their three children because he was “on the telephone making the deals.”

“He was a loving father, don’t get me wrong, and he was a good provider, but he was not the father which would take a stroll and go to the Central Park or go play to baseball with them or something,” she said, “It was only until they were about 18 years old [that] he could communicate with them, because he could start to talk business with them.​”​

“Before, he really didn’t know what conversation to strike with the little kids​,​”​ she added.

Ivana also lashed out against Marla Maples, wife No. 2, whose affair with Trump led to the couple’s all-too public divorce.

She said she’s forgiven her ex-husband, but not Maples.

​”I never accepted her apology,” Ivana Trump said. “She ruined my family and my marriage.”