'WTF?' Melania Trump says Jewish journalist targeted, threatened by anti-Semitic scum 'provoked them'

Til now Trump has refused to comment on his legions of anti-Semitic fans. Melania just gave them an atta boy. https://t.co/A9elllqxsY

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 17, 2016

Late last month, journalist Julia Ioffe wrote a profile of Melania Trump for GQ. Evidently it wasn’t glowing enough for Melania’s liking:

Her GQ profile of Melania Trump revealed that the the Slovenian model – and the billionaire’s third wife – has a half-brother who the family was not in contact with.

The profile included an interview with Melania Trump, who has since expressed her disappointment with the piece in a statement online.

Like her husband, who often blames the media for covering him unfairly, she called the article “yet another example of the dishonest media and their disingenuous reporting” in a Facebook post. She accused Ioffe of having an agenda, and said that her parents were private citizens who “should not be subject to Ms Ioffe’s unfair scrutiny”.

After Mrs. Trump’s very public condemnation of the article, Ioffe, who is Jewish, was bombarded with utter filth — including death threats — by anti-Semitic trolls.

Melania addressed that in another interview:

Melania on @juliaioffe’s anti-semitic trolls: pic.twitter.com/OssZhg3Ak2

— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) May 17, 2016

Full context:

I can’t help but wonder what kind of hate speech her supporters might unleash on me for asking a few pointed questions. A GQ reporter who dug into her family’s past—turning up the existence of a secret 50-year-old half-brother in her native Slovenia whom her father has never acknowledged—was subjected to anti-Semitic threats online. Of the GQ article, Melania says: “I have thick skin. It doesn’t bother me if they write about me because I know who I am. 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.” So if people put a swastika on my face once this article comes out, will she denounce them?

“I don’t control my fans,” Melania says, “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.”