I have seen a number of takes on what was said, and most conclude that it was dirty pool for Stephanie Winston Wolkoff to secretly tape a conversation with the First Lady while pretending to be on friendly terms with her.
The most compelling articulation of that viewpoint that I've come across comes from the reliably humane and thoughtful Rod Dreher at The American Conservative:
What Melania Trump said about Christmas decorating was rude and shallow — and boy, I’m really shocked that a former supermodel is rude and shallow — and what she said about the migrants was not really about the migrant kids at all, but about media hypocrisy in covering the story. But sure, if you want to spite Melania Trump for that, go ahead.
But what Stephanie Winston Wolkoff has done is truly monstrous. If you know her, or are her friend, you are now on alert as to the kind of person she is. Once more, that CNN rewards a wretched betrayal like this is a sign of degraded standards — and sign that they are helping to bring about a world in which selling out a friend by exposing intimate private conversations, for the sake of advancing a political cause, is our new norm. Seriously, folks: think about the kind of social order that we are bringing into being with stunts like this.
When I've thought the better of a previous position, I'm willing to publicly say so.
There's enough going on in this world that needs reporting and discussing that we don't have to rabidly search for gotcha moments. It does nothing to elevate the tone of our societal discourse.
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