2026-04-10T04:00:54.837Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
斯蒂芬·科林森 分析
3小时前发布
发布于美国东部时间2026年4月10日00:00
美国第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普周四在华盛顿白宫国宴厅与记者交谈。
杰奎琳·马丁/美联社
对于第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普突然就杰弗里·爱泼斯坦事件发表讲话，最合理的解释是她试图让这件事就此平息。
但她周四在白宫十字大厅——也就是她丈夫上周向全国发表伊朗战争讲话的地点——发表的令人震惊的公开声明，几乎肯定会适得其反。
“我不是爱泼斯坦的受害者。爱泼斯坦并没有将我介绍给唐纳德·特朗普，”她在声明中说道。而更不同寻常的是，最近几天公众并未广泛猜测过此事。
特朗普表示，她从未与爱泼斯坦是朋友，但她和当时还是男友的唐纳德·特朗普有时会在纽约和佛罗里达的社交场合偶遇他。“那些将我与可耻的杰弗里·爱泼斯坦联系在一起的谎言，今天必须停止，”这位第一夫人说道，不过她并未提及具体指控。
这番表态透露出，第一夫人对那些她认为虚假地将她与爱泼斯坦联系起来的报道和猜测感到厌烦。但她并非在真空中发表这番讲话。她的个人立场因丈夫而变得复杂，而爱泼斯坦的受害者指责她的丈夫领导的政府压制他们发声。
第一夫人的讲话时长略少于六分钟，全程围绕爱泼斯坦争议展开。但其影响将远超这一议题，因为她选择在丈夫面临巨大政治脆弱性的时刻公开表态。
白宫面临新的政治噩梦
梅拉尼娅·特朗普发表讲话时，白宫似乎正逐渐失去对唐纳德·特朗普第二任期既定叙事的掌控。这一趋势体现在总统针对伊朗战争的冲动且令人不安的激烈言论和威胁上，这些言论遭到了通常忠于他的保守派媒体人士的猛烈批评。
如今，白宫又新增了一场爱泼斯坦风波。
美国第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普周四在白宫十字大厅发表讲话。
曼德尔·恩/法新社/盖蒂图片社
在华盛顿的讨论焦点都集中在战争之际，这位一向重视隐私、并以与丈夫保持独立立场而闻名的第一夫人，为何如今会被迫发表注定引发轩然大波的声明？
部分动机似乎是个人层面的。梅拉尼娅·特朗普猛烈抨击了关于她与这位2019年在曼哈顿监狱中自杀的金融大亨有关联的“毫无根据和凭空捏造的谎言”。她提到了自己2002年与爱泼斯坦现已入狱的同伙吉斯莱恩·马克斯韦尔之间的一封友好邮件往来。她在邮件落款处写了“爱你的梅拉尼娅”，马克斯韦尔则回复称她为“小甜心”。周四，这位第一夫人表示，她的回复只是一次“随意的通信”，不过是一张“微不足道”的便条。
特朗普总统也否认与爱泼斯坦有关任何不当行为，并表示早在2000年代初爱泼斯坦的犯罪行为曝光前，他就已与对方断绝往来。没有证据表明特朗普夫妇存在任何不当行为。不过，和其他许多知名人士一样，总统面临着要求其说明与爱泼斯坦相识情况的压力，爱泼斯坦曾构建了一张庞大的权力与影响力网络。在周四之前，他的妻子从未公开谈论过爱泼斯坦事件。但她已经让哈珀柯林斯出版社、民主党战略家詹姆斯·卡维尔和《每日野兽》为过去试图将她与爱泼斯坦联系起来的行为道歉。
一个尚未澄清的问题是，白宫西翼在她的讲话中参与了多少政治运作。一位知情人士告诉CNN，总统知道他的妻子计划发表讲话。但总统随后在接受MSNBC采访时表示，他“对此一无所知”。这种存在矛盾和缺乏方向感的情况也体现在伊朗战争问题上不断变化的辩解和脱节的说法中。
特朗普数月来一直坚称，爱泼斯坦事件是民主党人的“骗局”，并称国家是时候翻过这一页了。据报道，他对这一丑闻仍在持续发酵感到沮丧，这也是他上周解雇司法部长帕姆·邦迪的原因之一。
司法部长帕姆·邦迪2月11日在华盛顿国会山出席众议院司法委员会关于监督司法部工作的听证会作证。
肯特·西村/路透社/资料图
几乎每次白宫试图平息这场风波时，结果都会适得其反。在关键时刻，勇敢公开讲述自己遭遇的爱泼斯坦受害者们为他们的维权运动注入了新的动力。第一夫人的此番言论可能会产生类似的效果。
通过如此公开地宣泄不满，她有可能破坏白宫“没有理由对爱泼斯坦事件感兴趣或担忧”的论调。她的发言也恰逢爱泼斯坦幸存者发出警告，称他们被怀有敌意的政府剥夺了正义。她的言论可能会被解读为一种主张，即他们应得到在全国面前证明自己清白的机会。
“每一位女性都有权在愿意的情况下公开讲述自己的故事，随后她的证词应永久载入《国会记录》，”特朗普说道。由于她的发声具有影响力，如今司法部和白宫的官员将更难辩称，公众没有理由更多关注爱泼斯坦事件的后续影响。
但一群爱泼斯坦幸存者指责第一夫人试图将责任转嫁到本应调查爱泼斯坦案件的联邦机构身上。他们表示，她的言论不过是在要求已经展现出非凡勇气的受害者付出更多。“在保护有权势者的政治化环境下，第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普如今将责任转嫁到了幸存者身上：包括司法部、执法部门、检察官，以及仍未完全遵守《爱泼斯坦文件透明度法案》的特朗普政府，”以弗吉尼亚·吉弗雷已故家属为首的幸存者和家属团体在一份声明中说道。
第一夫人也为自己设下了政治陷阱。国会山的民主党人要求她出席委员会作证。因此，如果民主党在11月赢得国会众议院或参议院的控制权，她可能已经埋下了白宫与国会首次重大冲突的种子。
“说实话，如果她想洗刷自己的名声，她应该亲自宣誓在我们的委员会作证，因为很明显，这正是她试图做的事情，”众议院监督委员会成员、弗吉尼亚州民主党众议员苏哈斯·苏布拉马尼亚姆告诉CNN的卡西·亨特。这位弗吉尼亚州民主党人指出，前第一夫人希拉里·克林顿今年早些时候就总统配偶就爱泼斯坦调查作证一事，为相关先例树立了榜样。
美国前国务卿希拉里·克林顿2月26日在纽约查帕奎伊出席众议院监督委员会就其与定罪性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦关联的调查进行的作证会后向媒体发表讲话。
查利·特里巴勒/法新社/盖蒂图片社
爱泼斯坦幸存者的维权人士指责司法部压制案件透明度，并非法扣留了根据去年晚些时候由共和党控制的国会通过、最初遭到特朗普反对的一项法律本应公开的数十万份文件。如今，人们可以合理地提出疑问：第一夫人是否会利用她与总统独特的影响力，来克服其政府在透明度问题上的拖延态度。
她的演讲发表之际，特朗普在“让美国再次伟大”运动中的支持基础正受到前所未有的考验。此前爱泼斯坦事件的进展已经让他疏远了一些最狂热的支持者，因为这加深了“华盛顿深层国家正在掩盖富人和有权势精英罪行”的看法。特朗普还与一些知名前支持者产生分歧，他们认为他在伊朗的行动违背了他不发动新对外战争的竞选承诺。
他最不希望看到的，就是为这两场争议火上浇油。但他目前没有明确的脱身之策，来应对这两场可能扼杀其总统任期的破坏性危机——一场国内危机，一场国外危机。
Melania Trump tried to sweep the Epstein saga away, but she ended up reviving it
2026-04-10T04:00:54.837Z / CNN
Analysis by Stephen Collinson
3 hr ago
PUBLISHED Apr 10, 2026, 12:00 AM ET
First lady Melania Trump arrives to speak with reporters on Thursday, in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
The most plausible explanation for first lady Melania Trump’s out-of-the-blue address on the Jeffrey Epstein drama was that she was trying to make it go away.
But her stunning on-camera statement Thursday from the White House Cross Hall — the spot where her husband last week spoke to the nation about the Iran war — will almost certainly have the opposite effect.
“I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump,” she said, in a statement that was all the more remarkable since there had been no widespread public speculation about the matter in recent days.
Trump said she had never been friends with Epstein, but that she and her then-boyfriend Donald Trump sometimes encountered him in social circles in New York and Florida. “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” the first lady said, although she didn’t point to specific allegations.
The optics were of a first lady fed up with reports and speculation she believes falsely link her to Epstein. But she was not speaking in a vacuum. Her personal position is complicated by her proximity to her husband, who leads an administration accused by Epstein victims of silencing their voices.
The first lady’s speech, which lasted just under six minutes, was confined to the Epstein controversy. But its implications will go far beyond the issue, since she chose a moment of huge political vulnerability for her husband to go public.
A new political nightmare for the White House
Melania Trump spoke from a White House that appears to be losing control of its preferred narrative of Donald Trump’s second term. This trend was reflected in the president’s impulsive and chilling outbursts and threats over the war in Iran that fueled fierce criticism from usually loyal conservative media personalities.
Now it has a new Epstein furor.
First lady Melania Trump speaks in the Cross Hall of the White House on Thursday.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
With the war dominating conversation in Washington, why did a first lady who prizes privacy and is known for an independent streak from her husband feel compelled to make what would inevitably be an explosive statement now?
Part of the motivation appeared personal. Melania Trump lashed out at “unfounded and baseless lies” over her connections to the financier who took his own life in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. She referenced a friendly email exchange she had in 2002 with Epstein’s now jailed associate Ghislaine Maxwell. She signed off the note “Love Melania” and Maxwell responded, calling her “sweet pea.” On Thursday, the first lady said that her reply was just a “casual correspondence,” and merely a “trivial” note.
President Trump has also denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein and has said he cut off ties with him in the early 2000s before his criminal conduct came to light. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either of the Trumps. The president has, however, come under pressure — along with many other prominent men — to describe what they knew about Epstein, who operated an extraordinary web of power and influence. His wife hadn’t spoken publicly about the Epstein saga before Thursday. But she’d secured apologies from HarperCollins Publishers, Democratic strategist James Carville and the Daily Beast over past efforts to tie her to Epstein.
One question yet to be cleared up is the extent of the West Wing’s political involvement in her remarks. A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the president was aware that his wife planned to speak. But the president told MSNOW shortly afterward that he did not “know anything about it.” This sense that contradictions and a lack of direction is plaguing the White House has also been reflected in the shifting justifications and disconnects over the Iran war.
Trump has spent months insisting that the Epstein issue is a Democratic “hoax” and saying that it is time for the country to move on. His frustration that the scandal is still rumbling on was reportedly one of the reasons why he fired Attorney General Pam Bondi last week.
Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Justice Department, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 11.
Kent Nishimura/Reuters/File
Almost every time the White House has tried to quell the drama, it has made it worse. At critical moments, victims of Epstein who have bravely gone public about their ordeals have injected their campaign with new momentum. The first lady’s remarks may have a similar impact.
By venting frustrations so publicly, she risked undermining the White House message that there’s no reason for interest in or concern about Epstein. She was also speaking in the context of warnings by Epstein survivors that they have been denied justice by a hostile government. Her comment could be interpreted as an argument that they deserve a moment of vindication in front of the country.
“Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public, if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the Congressional Record,” Trump said. Because of the power of her voice, it will now be harder for officials in the Justice Department and the White House to argue there is no public interest in giving more attention to Epstein fallout.
But a group of Epstein survivors accused the first lady of trying to deflect responsibility from federal agencies that should be probing the Epstein case. Her statement, they said, simply asks more from victims who’d already shown extraordinary courage. “First Lady Melania Trump is now shifting the burden onto survivors under politicized conditions that protect those with power: the Department of Justice, law enforcement, prosecutors, and the Trump Administration, which has still not fully complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” a group of survivors and family members of the late Virginia Giuffre said in a statement.
The first lady has also created a political trap for herself. Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding that she testify to the committee. She may therefore have planted the seeds for a first big clash between the White House and Congress if Democrats win back one or both chambers of Congress in November.
“Honestly, if she wants to clear her name, she should come testify before our committee herself under oath, because it’s clear that that’s what she was trying to do,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told CNN’s Kasie Hunt. The Virginia Democrat pointed out that former first lady Hillary Clinton had established a precedent for the spouses of presidents to testify to the investigation with her own testimony on Epstein earlier this year.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the press after her a deposition with the House Oversight Committee as they investigate links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in Chappaqua, New York, on February 26.
Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
Advocates for Epstein survivors accuse the Justice Department of suppressing transparency on the case, and of illegally holding onto hundreds of thousands of documents due for release under a law passed by the GOP-led Congress against Trump’s initial opposition late last year. The question can now be fairly asked whether the first lady would use her unique influence with the president to overcome his administration’s foot-dragging.
Her speech also came as Trump’s foundation of support in his MAGA movement is being tested as never before. Previous Epstein developments alienated him from some of his most fervent supporters, since they played into a perception that a Washington deep state is covering up crimes of rich and powerful elites. Trump is also at odds with some high-profile former supporters who regard his Iran adventure as flouting his campaign pledge of no new foreign wars.
The last thing he wants is more fuel for either controversy. But he’s got no clear exit strategy from two corrosive crises — one at home and one abroad — that threaten to stifle his presidency.
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