She folded like a deck of cards

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, former senior adviser to Melania Trump, was interviewed by Rachel Maddow.  Wolcoff was describing how Melania turned her back on her when the White House decided to throw Wolkoff under the bus for inaugurationgate:

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff told US journalist Rachel Maddow she had recorded her former friend to gain material for the book, but only once it was clear that Melania was not going to come to her aid in an investigation.

“If she was my friend that would be horrible, but Melania and the White House had accused me of criminal activity, had publicly shamed and fired me, and made me their scapegoat,” Ms Winston Wolkoff said.  “At that moment in time, that’s when I pressed record. At that moment she was no longer my friend and she was willing to let them take me down and she told me herself this is the way it has to be.

“That’s not how you treat a friend so I was going to do anything in my power to make sure that I was protected.”

“She turned her back, she folded like a deck of cards and I was shocked when she did it.”

https://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/news/melania-folded-like-a-deck-of-cards/4091574/

This is a congruent conflation of “fold like a cheap suitcase” and “fall like a house of cards”, both meaning to collapse easily or a plan that is destined to fail.  “Fold like a card table” may also be in the mix, as it doesn’t have the word “cheap” in it.  This is similar to a prior posting uttered by Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenetti – “folded like a cheap deck of cards”.  https://malaphors.com/2018/04/10/hes-going-to-fold-like-a-cheap-deck-of-cards/

Props to Frank King and Mike Kovacs, two giants in the malaphor spotting field.