Melania Trump misstep has plunged her into 'nightmare of her own making’: columnist

First lady Melania Trump made a serious miscalculation when she denied a relationship with late financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, which has backfired, a columnist explained on Saturday.

The Guardian's Arwa Mahdawi described how Melania Trump's move has now led to "a nightmare of her own making," as questions swirl over what prompted the first lady to publicly comment on the matter amid the Iran war.

"Melania may not be the president, but she is in the same sycophantic bubble as her husband," Mahdawi wrote. "It’s possible she just thought she could hold a press conference and command all us plebs to stop talking about her, and we would immediately obey."

But that's not what happened.

"On the contrary, however, the first lady has now created a PR nightmare for herself," Mahdawi wrote. "In a statement released on Thursday, a group of Epstein survivors accused Trump of 'shifting the burden onto survivors under politicized conditions to protect those with power.' They added that her statement 'diverts attention from [former attorney general] Pam Bondi, who must answer for withheld files and the exposure of survivors’ identities. Those failures continue to put lives at risk while shielding enablers. Survivors have done their part. Now it’s time for those in power to do theirs.'"

And as reports surface that the first lady could have been trying to get ahead of something or try to control the narrative around Epstein, her public comments sparked more speculation.

"If a bombshell about the Trump-Epstein relationship is about to drop, it feels on-brand for the White House to drown it out with a real explosion," Mahdawi added.