Lynne Patton shakes her head and sighs when she thinks about the New York Daily News front-page story that called her “The Wedding Scammer” and led many people across the country to ridicule her as the Trump family wedding planner turned federal housing official.

“I am close to the Trump family. I am loyal to the Trump family, and they are trying to embarrass the Trump family any chance they get,” Ms. Patton, 44, said Sunday in her first interview since being appointed head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s New York and New Jersey office. “Had I represented a different administration, my narrative likely would have been that I rose through the rank and file in one of the most successful companies in the world from assistant to senior executive and was subsequently handpicked by the president of the United States.”

After The Daily News reported two weeks ago that Ms. Patton, a longtime Trump family associate who worked on the president’s campaign and helped plan his son Eric’s wedding, would be tapped for the role, housing advocates and elected officials criticized the appointment. Most said Ms. Patton was not qualified for the job: She had no housing experience before she became the department’s senior adviser and director of public engagement for the housing secretary, Ben Carson, several months ago. Representative Grace Meng, Democrat of New York, even wrote a letter to the president demanding Ms. Patton’s immediate removal.

But on Monday, Ms. Patton will begin her job in her new office in Manhattan.

“The misdirected discontent with my boss has prevented people from seeing the obvious fact that I am, more than anyone, best suited to serve as this liaison because, after all, I have a direct line to both the secretary and the president of the United States,” she said. “I’m not going to hesitate to use them, either, to fortify or defend the housing needs and affordable housing concerns of Region II.”