Sneed: The Melania flap: Donald Trump aims to ‘defend her honor’

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CLEVELAND — There is heart behind the hair.

Sneed hears Donald Trump, furious that his wife Melania Trump’s convention speech has been hit by plagiarism charges — is considering “a public way to defend her honor,” a Trump source said.

“She feels her character has been assassinated,” the source said. “He is very protective of Melania, and she is also furious and hurt.”

The big question: Will Trump use a Republican National Convention podium here to do so?

“Her convention speech was a hit, and now she’s been hit [with cribbing from a 2008 Michelle Obama speech] — and a head will roll, but it will be quiet,” the source said.

“Melania is not an out front person,” the source added. “She doesn’t like the spotlight. She is a hesitant person. But they are a very close couple.”

Sneed also hears Trump is building a new infrastructure around her — a new layer of protection.

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Chatting with Sneed privately before and after addressing an Illinois delegation breakfast Monday, Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who was replaced by Paul Manafort, indicated that Manafort should be fired because the buck stopped with him.

He also said a number of people in the close Trump circle would have read the speech before giving it a thumbs-up.

“Look, this shouldn’t have happened. To have put Mrs. Trump in such a position is outrageous,” Lewandowski said. “Whoever signed off on this should be held accountable.”

And he didn’t believe it was just a rookie error.

When asked if Trump’s campaign deputy Rick Gates, who oversaw Melania’s speech process, was involved, Lewandowski just smiled.

Manafort and Gates have denied any cribbing.

Sneed is also told that Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, also would have read the speech.

“Mrs. Trump would never have intentionally inserted someone else’s words,” said Lewandowski, who also organized the Trump rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which became a slugfest and had to be canceled.

“We went into the heart of the monster,” he said. “Who else would do that?”

Cut and trim . . .

It’s getting shorter.

The Donald has clipped the ski slope known as his hair — and has eased up on the shellac on his side wings.

Is it a pre-presidential sign?

• To wit: Trump once told Sneed he might have to trim his unusual hairdo if elected president.

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