CNN Reporter Absolutely Shreds Melania Trump Over ‘Completely Unprecedented and Very, Very Unusual’ $250K Request to Do an Interview

CNN correspondent Hadas Gold harshly condemned a request from former First Lady Melania Trump’s publisher, asking for a stunning $250,000 payment for an interview.

Gold reported on Thursday about an email from Skyhorse Publishing, the publisher for Trump’s memoir, with an agreement that requested a $250,000 “licensing fee” for an interview, book excerpts, and photos. That amount is in line with similar payments Trump has recently received for speaking fees at fundraisers and other political events. When asked for comment, the publisher claimed this was a “miscommunication” and insisted “[n]either Melania nor anyone from her team knew anything” about the request.

CNN Newsroom anchor Pamela Brown reported on how Trump has voiced her support for abortion as a “fundamental right of individual liberty,” putting her in conflict with the GOP platform as her husband former President Donald Trump is running for re-election — and abortion is a more contentious issue than ever in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs.

CNN had tried to interview Trump before the release of her memoir, said Brown, but her publisher “responded with an unusual demand” — the $250,000 “licensing fee” that she and Gold had reported.

The story was “pretty simple,” said Gold. “Most legitimate news organizations would never pay a public figure, especially the spouse of the Republican candidate for president, for an interview. Full stop. They just would not do that.”

“CNN has not and will not pay for such an interview,” she emphasized.

Media organizations have paid to license photos or trying to get interviews with people “involved in things like scandals or murders or the like,” Gold continued, but paying for a political interview, especially the spouse of a candidate, “essentially all of the media ethical boundaries.”

It was common for a former first lady to be paid for a speaking engagement or a book advance, but Trump was “not just the former first lady,” she was also the spouse of the current GOP presidential nominee.

“So it is very unusual also that her team would send such requests, and such a high amount for request to a news organization,” said Gold. She noted that the publisher was now saying this was a “miscommunication,” but she was skeptical of that excuse, noting that there were “several back-and-forths” between the publisher and CNN before the proposed contract was sent and it was “very clear in the conversations with CNN, and in the contract that we’ve seen, that they knew who they were dealing with, because the contract very clearly lays out that it’s CNN, that the contract is with and that it is for an interview.

Gold added that Trump had been interviewed by Fox News twice during the last few weeks, and Fox News gave a statement to CNN saying the network did not pay a licensing fee or any other fee for those interviews.

This request, “coming from a supposedly professional team for Melania Trump,” being sent to a news organization, was “completely unprecedented and very, very unusual,” Gold said journalism ethics experts and experts regarding the first lady’s activities all said.

Watch the clip above via CNN.