WASHINGTON • United States President Donald Trump has pushed back against a report that said his wife, Melania, was unprepared for the role of First Lady, didn't want it and never thought he would win.

The piece, in Vanity Fair, quoted an anonymous friend of the Trumps as saying that the First Lady "didn't want this come hell or high water".

The President on Tuesday took to Twitter, where he referred to his wife as "our great and very hard working First Lady, who truly loves what she is doing".

"She would tell everyone that, 'no doubt, he will win,'" he added.

In recent days, the White House has been heavily promoting the First Lady's role in preparing for the holiday season. That included a retweet by Mr Trump on Tuesday of a tweet by his wife, in which she relayed that "the decorations are up! @WhiteHouse is ready to celebrate!" The tweet was accompanied by a video.

The President's tweet on Tuesday drew some fierce reactions, including by Ms Patti Solis Doyle, a former aide to both Mrs Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama.

"Nobody thought you would win," she wrote on Twitter. "It stunned the nation. And every day Americans face the dire consequences of your election. We spend our days explaining to our children that @realDonaldTrump is NOT the way we expect them to behave - liar, not prepared, offensive."

WASHINGTON POST