Donald Trump says he loves daughter Tiffany after aide claims he 'avoids being pictured with her'
US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday night that he loves his daughter Tiffany, denying reported claims by a close aide that he perceived her to be insufficiently slim and avoided being photographed with her.
Madeleine Westerhout, his personal assistant, was forced to resign earlier in the day after Politico reported she had made the unflattering claims over a boozy dinner with reporters.
“She’s going to be calling me when we get to Camp David,” Mr Trump said of his daughter by second wife Marla Maples, as he spoke to reporters before leaving for the presidential retreat.
“I love Tiffany. She’s a wonderful person and she studies hard,” he added.
Ms Westerhout reportedly bragged at the dinner that she had a better relationship with Mr Trump than his own daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany, and claimed that he does not like being pictured with 25-year-old Tiffany because he considered her to be overweight.
The aide, once described by Mr Trump as "the key... the secret" to gaining access to him, was ousted after leaking the personal details at a hotel in New Jersey while the president was on holiday.
She was also said to have claimed that Mr Trump “couldn’t pick Tiffany out of a crowd”.
He dismissed the comments as “absolutely false".
Mr Trump added that Ms Westerhout “always did a good job” but that he had found the remarks "a little but hurtful".
“I really think she had a bad night. I think it was unfortunate, she said she was drinking and the whole thing was very unfortunate,” he told reporters.
“You don’t say things like she said,” he said, adding that her departure was “automatic”.
Tiffany Trump is the president's only child by Ms Maples, to whom he was married from 1993 to 1999. Ivana Trump, his first wife, is the mother of Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, while he also has a son, Barron, with his current wife Melania.
