Although Melania Trump has always publicly supported her husband, Donald Trump, while he was president, the two have often felt frustrated behind the scenes — and a new book reveals the details.
In her book American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Bidenwhich was published on Tuesday, The New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers details the evolution of a 21st-century first lady, with one chapter devoted to Melania’s time in the role.
Through interviews with dozens of sources close to the Trumps, as well as former employees, Rogers details how Melania, 53, and Donald, 77, have disagreed on everything from what television channel to watch to how to respond to national tragedies.
Below are some of the things the first couple clashed over during their time in the White House, as described in the book.
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Donald J. Trump and Melania Trump. Photo by Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images
On CNN vs. Fox News
IN American woman, Rogers writes that Melania consumed a lot of news in the White House and was careful about how the media covered her. Like her husband, she was critical of reporters who were critical of her, according to the book — but unlike her husband, she had another cable news channel, watching CNN as “voraciously” as Donald watched Fox News. (“A house divided,” as Rogers puts it.)
However, the couple’s opposing media consumption habits became an issue for the then-president in July 2018. That’s when, Rogers says, Donald became “enraged that his wife’s TV was tuned to CNN on Air Force One during a transoceanic trip.” He ordered all the TVs on Air Force One – and in their individual hotel suites – to be turned to Fox News.
However, Trump’s relationship with Fox News soured in the latter part of his presidency, particularly after the network correctly named the state of Arizona for Joe Biden during the 2020 election.
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Melania and Donald Trump disembark from their last flight on Air Force One in West Palm Bleach, Fla., on January 20, 2021. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP/Shutterstock
About decorating the White House
In the early days of Trump’s presidency – while Melania was still living in New York with her son Barron – she was choosing furniture for the White House residence, as is typical for many first ladies.
But her husband, whose taste is much flashier than the modern aesthetic Melania gravitates toward, “replaced her selection with a few pieces he liked better,” Rogers writes.
“Without any control over decorum, Melania still wanted to signal to the public that she was optimistic about her future in Washington,” Rogers continues. So the first lady took to Twitter, sharing a view of the Washington Monument from the White House, along with the message: “Looking forward to the memories we’ll make in our new home!”
While Donald may have had the final say on furniture selection, Melania has worked to maintain her sense of independence while in the White House, setting up her own suite in addition to the presidential suite, according to Rogers. Melania also moved her parents, mother Amalia and father Viktor, to the room where Michelle Obama’s mother used to live, so they could be nearby.
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A vigil for Heather Heyer, who died in the 2017 white nationalist riots in Charlottesville, Virginia.
About the response to the crisis
When it comes to the most divisive issues of Trump’s presidency, Melania “didn’t mind being separated from her husband,” Rogers writes.
That includes the moment in 2017 when Donald said there were “very good people, on both sides,” of a white nationalist rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia.
While her husband publicly justified the episode, Melania was “quick to discourage violence,” Rogers noted, posting on Twitter: “Our country encourages free speech, but let’s communicate without hate in our hearts. Nothing good comes from violence.”
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She has taken a different stance from her husband in other cases as well, such as when Trump condemned black athletes for kneeling during the national anthem. After Trump publicly insulted LeBron James, Rogers points out, Melania issued a statement from her press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, in which she praised the basketball player.
“Her tweets were small gestures that amounted to little more than digital ephemera,” Rogers writes. “Yet, compared to her husband’s bridge-burners, Melania’s letters established her as the rare person in the Trump administration who seemed more interested in smoothing the cultural divide than widening it.”
Sometimes Melania’s moments in public irritated her husband, such as when she infamously wore a jacket that read: “I really don’t care. What about you?” to visit migrant children held in a detention center.
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The jacket led to one of the most infamous moments of Melania’s time as first lady — one that, even by Trump’s standards, was “chaotic,” Rogers writes.
Grisham, Rogers adds, “later recalled that Trump called the two into his office, yelled at them, and then decided that the official explanation for the jacket would be that Melania was speaking directly to the media.”
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Donald and Melania Trump return to the White House on May 27, 2020. Win McNamee/Getty
On the response to Donald’s alleged indiscretion
One of the biggest ways Melania has asserted her independence and dissent from her husband is in the way she has responded—or not—to his scandals.
Rogers writes that one such moment occurred in late 2018, when adult film star Stormy Daniels said she was paid $130,000 just before the 2016 election to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she had a decade earlier with Trump (when Melania was, on time, pregnant with Barron).
After the news broke, Melania gave up on an overseas trip with her husband and retreated to Mar-a-Lago without him, Rogers writes. “Grisham, who traveled with her on that trip, said the First Lady wanted to convey her anger to the president.”
Speaking to Rogers, Grisham said the move was intentional: “I think she was mad at Trump and wanted him to be a little humiliated by leaving.”
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Source: HIS Education