It was only a matter of time before an episode of "Real House Wives of the White House" played out before the entire world.
On Monday morning Donald Trump's ex-wife, Ivana Trump, appeared on Good Morning America where jokingly she said that "I’m basically first Trump wife. I’m first lady.”
Ivana Trump says she has Pres. Trump's direct White House number: "I'm basically first Trump wife. I'm first lady." https://t.co/SiTlUUDX2S pic.twitter.com/0DQ5AMQ311
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 9, 2017
Asked how often Ivana speaks with her ex-husband, Trump said about once every 14 days, boasting he has a "direct number to the White House," but she admitted she's reluctant to call him too often.
"I have the direct number to White House, but I no really want to call him there because Melania is there, and I don't want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that," Ivana said, laughing. "Because I'm basically first Trump wife, okay? I'm first lady, okay?"
While Ivana was largely sanguine about Melania Trump, she was much less so about Trump's second wife, Marla Maples, who had an affair with him while he was still married to Ivana Trump. "One is nobody. And the other one is First Lady," Ivana Trump joked.
Her statements, however, did not go over well with the real first lady, and In a statement issued by her spokesperson Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump blasted her husband’s first wife for her statements on GMA.
"She plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. “There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex. Unfortunately only attention seeking and self-serving noise.”
Melania Trump's office rips "attention seeking" Ivana Trump in a statement because we live in a reality show now pic.twitter.com/h38jDa62Qz
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) October 9, 2017
While as Mediaite points out, this is the kind of public spat in which Melania’s husband routinely engages, for Melania, this type of squabble is rare, while this type of harsh rebuke, rarer still.
As for Ivana, one can see the motive behind the feud: she is currently promoting her new memoir "Raising Trump," which features stories about raising her children with Trump. During her book promotion tour, the former Mrs. Trump has made several headline-grabbing comments: in a previous interview, she claimed that her ex-husband offered her the ambassadorship to the Czech Republic. She also bashed his second wife, Marla Maples.