Melania Trump has no desire to give up the benefits of being Mrs. Trump #3, no more than Hillary Clinton was going to give up the benefits of riding her husband’s coattails to the White House.

Let’s just make sure everybody knows their role from the beginning and that nobody on either side attempts to take the high ground. I think that ship has long since sailed and we’re pretty much dealing with the dregs of tabloid society, here.

It has taken well over a week for Melania Trump to address the 2005 hot mic audio of her husband being a scumbag.

Sure, she’s given terse, clipped answers, expressing her disapproval, but nothing definitive.

I suppose it took her that long to work up what seemed to be a good defense (or to have her lawyer make a quick summary of the pre-nup).

Melania Trump said her husband and Bush engaged in “boy talk, and he was led on — like egged on — from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.”

“And as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on — it was only a mic. And I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on,” Melania Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday.

Supposedly, they did not know.

That being said, she just suggested that her husband, who at almost 60 years old, at the time of the recording, was nowhere near a “boy,” is emotionally immature and unable to judge for himself what is appropriate or inappropriate.

She had to tell him it was inappropriate.

“I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know,” she said, adding that she hadn’t heard Trump talk like that before.

“I heard many different stuff — boys talk,” she said. “The boys, the way they talk when they grow up and they want to sometimes show each other, ‘Oh, this and that’ and talking about the girls. But yes, I was surprised, of course.”

So we can say she’s no fan of Howard Stern, apparently. Had she been, she would have heard him say things exactly like that, and often.

But I suppose Stern egged him on, as well.

The bottom line is, Melania Trump is playing her role and defending her husband. It’s what political wives do.

It’s the same thing Hillary Clinton did in the 90s, when all of Bill’s indiscretions were revealed. She played the dutiful wife, standing by her husband.

Trump supporters have been quick to bring that up and scoff at her making excuses for him.

I don’t blame them. She was willing to look the fool for political gain.

Will they also condemn Melania Trump for basically making excuses for her husband’s wretched behavior?

The same ones that mocked Hillary should be willing to mock Melania Trump.

She’s basically Hillary Clinton with an accent and a face lift, at this point.

If she’s right, however, what does this say about Donald Trump?

It suggests that he can be swayed and twisted to follow after anyone. That happens when you have no core of principles to stand upon.

It also suggests that he lacks the ability to truly lead, especially if he’s around stronger, actual leaders.