“It’s unbelievably alarming that this president is so easily played,” Brzezinski said to the camera at one point. At the Enquirer, these offers for comment on critical articles are routinely made to subjects and just as often declined. “I was FaceTiming all my friends, telling them to get it done, that it wasn’t so bad.” 
 
 She said that she had told Melania Trump about the procedure when the couple stopped by Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve. “I just felt pretty lousy about it all.” (Lawton, Steinberg, and Woods declined to comment; Lawton’s mother could not be reached for comment.) Last summer, he tweeted that Brzezinski was “a neurotic and not very bright mess!” and threatened to “tell the real story” about their relationship. “Jared said we should end the meeting right then and there, because it was one of the only times he had heard him apologize,” Scarborough said. Afterward, they said that the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, brokered a meeting with the four of them. Even though it’s smaller now, Donald’s mind-set is that it’s an influential publication. Mark Peterson/Redux / Redux for NBC News file 
 
 Prior to the reporters' calls, Brzezinski said, the Enquirer had been phoning her teenage daughters and friends for comment on the story, citing her ex-husband as a source.
– More details about President Trump's alleged attempt to blackmail the hosts of Morning Joe are leaking out, including the reported involvement of his son-in-law. New York reports Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski found out in March the National Enquirer was planning to run a story about their affair, which had not yet been made public. Scarborough texted Jared Kushner about the story in April, and Kushner told him he needed to personally apologize to Trump for negative coverage in order to kill the story, according to sources close to the situation. Scarborough declined, and the Enquirer ran a story titled "Morning Joe Sleazy Cheating Scandal" in June. The Enquirer denies any knowledge of conversations between the White House and the Morning Joe hosts. In a tweet, Trump claimed Scarborough tried to get him to kill the story; Scarborough denies that. Scarborough also claims to have text and phone records from Trump aides proving his version of events, NBC News reports. Brzezinski also claims the Enquirer had been calling her teen daughters about the story. Trump is friends with the head of the tabloid—a relationship detailed in the New Yorker—and last August tweeted that he would "tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns!” Earlier this week, Trump falsely claimed Brzezinski had shown up at Mar-a-Lago "bleeding badly from a face-lift." Scarborough tells Vanity Fair that at the time an impressed Trump had relentlessly pestered Brzezinski for the name of her plastic surgeon.