You’ve probably heard of the Barbra Streisand effect: the phenomenon where attempts to censor information end up drawing more attention to it.

Now we might soon be referencing the Melania Trump effect: the phenomenon where holding a surprise press conference to state that you did not have a relationship with a dead paedophile, and would like people to please stop speculating about the matter, immediately causes people to start speculating about the matter.

On Thursday, for reasons that nobody can quite understand, the first lady decided to tell the world to ignore all the rumours circulating about her connections to Jeffrey Epstein because she “never had a relationship” with the late sex offender or his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Yes, she’d met Epstein, but she barely knew him. Yes, there are photos of Epstein, Maxwell and the Trumps together, but those aren’t a big deal.

Trump did acknowledge writing a friendly email to Maxwell, signed “Love, Melania”, but brushed that off. “I [have] never been friends with Epstein,” she insisted. “I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump.” She also called on Congress to take sworn testimony in a public hearing from Epstein victims. (Maybe you could have just asked your husband to get that done, Melania? I hear he’s pretty high up in politics.)

You don’t have to be a PR expert to realise that issuing a statement like this was a deeply weird move. The world’s attention has been diverted from Epstein by the war on Iran, but this unexpected press conference has put the Trump family’s relationship with the late financier back in the headlines. If the first lady was hoping to clear up some rumours and draw a line under the issue, she has sorely failed. It’s also unclear whether the president, who has urged people to move on from Epstein, was aware Melania had planned to speak out about this.

So what’s going on? The official explanation is simply that Trump “spoke out now because enough is........

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