A Russian-American reporter who came under attack after profiling Melania Trump for
GQ magazine "provoked" the online anti-Semitic threats, the GOP presumptive presidential nominee's wife tells
DuJour magazine.
In the April 27 GQ profile, writer Julia Ioffe reports that Melania Trump has a 50-year-old half-brother, Denis Cigelnjak, whom her father has never acknowledged.
"I have thick skin. It doesn't bother me if they write about me because I know who I am," Melania Trump tells DuJour.
"But what right does the reporter have to go and dig in court in Slovenia in 1960 about my parents? They're private citizens. If they go after me, it's different. But to do that, it's a little bit nasty, it's a little bit mean."
When asked about the online backlash Ioffe received – some of which was posted by
Business Insider – Trump's wife replied, "I don't control my fans, but I don't agree with what they're doing."
"I understand what you mean, but there are people out there who maybe went too far. She provoked them."
In a
Facebook post, Trump's wife called the GQ profile "yet another example of the dishonest media and their disingenuous reporting."
Ioffe, for her part, however, tells
The Guardian, "This is not a heavily critical article. There is nothing in it that is untrue."
"If this is how Trump supporters swing into action, what happens when the press looks into corrupt dealings, for example, or is critical of his policies?" Ioffe asks. "We left Russia because we were fleeing antisemitism. It's been a rude shock for everyone."
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