Melania Trump's ex-adviser slams her 'REPULISVE' citizenship ceremony speech and claims the former First Lady was previously uninterested in supporting migrants

An ex-adviser to Melania Trump has criticized the former first lady's recent speech at a National Archives Naturalization Ceremony as a feigned sympathy grab amid the current migrant crisis.

Trump, 53, on Friday assured new arrivals that they 'are American' and thus should be 'proud' and 'stand [their] ground' - spurring the angry response from former staffer Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.

In comments to CNN, Winston Wolkoff - who once served as an unpaid advisor to the Slovenian national - called the spot 'repulsive,' and a 'publicity moment.' 

The 52-year-old went on to accuse the mom-of-one of being 'almost deceitful', for celebrating 25 new citizens from 25 countries in the ceremony in Washington, DC.

The comments from the fashion executive come some four years after she resigned after the extent of her firm's compensation for organizing inaugural festivities came into question, claiming she was 'scapegoated' over a misspent $26million.

She claimed only $1.6million of the sum went to her personally, and that it was divided among 15 employees. Reps for Trump - who had long been friends with the ex-Sotheby's lobbyist - later said she 'had no involvement' in the party planning.

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Hours after her old boss's appearance Friday, Winston Wolkoff proceeded to tear into Trump, citing what she viewed as her previous disinterest in helping the demographic.

She told CNN NewsNight host Abby Phillip of the speech:  'Unfortunately, I find it to be really deceptive, almost deceitful, and quite honestly, I find Melania Trump's words to be lacking of any real meaning.'

She went on to state how Trump, as the second first lady of the United States to hail from another, 'had the opportunity to make such a difference in the lives of so many', but failed by blindly supporting her husband.

'I mean, it was the American dream,' she said of the Slovenian's unlikely ascension to the peak of American political power, eventually adding: 'And to squander that opportunity, to show up today, to try and make a difference in something that her husband is so against, which is immigration, as we all know, really is meaningless.'

The declaration was followed by another that questioned Trump's motives while on the podium, and her 'intent on doing the right thing matters in America.'

Winston Wolkoff - who in 2020 published the scathing tell-all Melania and Me about her time in the Trump camp - also asked aloud if Trump was not publicly seeking 'attention,' before answering herself:  'That is why she is there today.'

She explained: 'It is the attention she receives, it is what brings Donald the ability to bring more people to the forefront of what he is discussing about immigration.

'And for her to really talk about and be there under the guise that she cares about America and democracy,' she added, 'is untruthful.'

She went on to claim that '[u]nfortunately, people keep giving [her] this out, this reason to believe that Melania should be freed from Donald. 

'But Melania is complicit,' she then declared, before comparing Trump to her husband.

'Melania is, you know, side by side with the showmanship and she is exactly like Donald - just, unfortunately, in a skirt and high heels.

'Showing up today,' she added, 'was just another way for her to have some camera time.'

Asked whether Trump would 'reappear in the coming months' to help her husband's campaign, Winston Wolkoff replied affirmatively - stating: 'I do feel strongly that Melania Trump isn't going anywhere.'

She explained: I believe that Melania will stay by Donald's side. Throughout all of this, she is his partner in crime.'

Toward the end of the interview, Winston Wolkoff declared, 'I find [the speech] to be really quite repulsive', while billing it as yet another 'publicity moment' by the former model.

Hours before, while dressed in a black pantsuit, Trump told onlookers how she had determinedly pursued her own American dream after moving to New York City in 1996 and eventually meeting Donald.

She said reaching the 'milestone of citizenship' had marked the 'sunrise of certainty' in her life.

'You are American,' she told the new citizens, adding that they should be 'proud' and to 'stand your ground'.

Melania arrived in American from Slovenia in 1996 and became a U.S. citizen 10 years later.

She spoke as her husband campaigns for a second term in the White House although she made no mention of him in her remarks. 

Should he win, Donald Trump would enact an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration, the New York Times reported last month, that would sharply restrict both legal and illegal immigration.

His plans include using the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out sweeping raids across the country and return to his ban of entry by people from certain Muslim-majority nations, and re-imposing a Covid 19-era policy of refusing asylum claims.

A day after his wife appeared on at the ceremony, the politician quoted Adolf Hitler to a crowd in Rhode Island while speaking about migrants - claiming they are coming from 'all over the world' and 'poisoning the blood of our country'.

The comments echoed some of the defamatory ones issued by the Republican during his first campaign about Mexicans and other migrants, which landed him in hot water but also saw him gain a great deal of news coverage in the buildup to the 2016 election.

He eventually won a close, somewhat unexpected decision over Hillary Clinton, with many crediting the publicity he received as a deciding factor.

When he assumed the Oval Office, Melania tapped the former director of special events at Vogue Winston Wolkoff as her senior adviser, after which the ex-fashion director used a company she ran out of Marina Del Rey to secure $26million for 'event production services' during the inauguration.

When confronted with the spending, she told the Times that most of the $26 million went to subcontractors, and that the $1.62 million was divided among 15 of her own staffers .

Trump went on to cut ties with Winston Wolkoff in February 2018, claiming in a statement that she 'had no involvement' in the inauguration planning and had 'no knowledge of how funds were spent.'

The two - who had been friends during Trump's first two decades in the Big Apple - have not been seen together since. Winston Wolkoff's book, which bashed both Melania and her husband, was released two years after her resignation. 

Meanwhile, the migrant crisis continues to worsen, with more than 100,000 arrivals over the past year since Trump's Title 42 was rescinded, which allowed border agents to more freely send migrants back across the border.

Migration numbers in states like Texas have increased drastically as a result, with Arizona - the state with the second-most land along the Southern Border - serving as a sort of lesser known casualty.

According to federal data released earlier in the year - when monthly border crossings reached a record 218,763 encounters -  an average of 1,000 people have been sent back across the border each month since Title 42 ended, compared with 3,000 the month before.

The spike, seen in September, came after a summer that saw 181,509 arrests at the Mexican border in August, up 37 percent from July but little changed from August 2022.

Numbers have dipped slightly since October, which historically has been the case regardless of the year.

A surge in Arizona has also been occurring for the past four months, with the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector recently stealing the distinction from towns in Texas as the busiest corridor for migrant encounters.  

The traffic is somewhat uncharacteristic for a passage that typically sees less traffic than other sectors like the Rio Grande Valley, and shows the constantly evolving state of the country's continued border crisis as Biden tries to deflect to Congress.