There’s a new book about the First Lady that seems to be the first that really goes deep into her vague backstory. It’s interesting although I can’t say any of it surprises me. Everyone in Trumpworld is a con artist to one degree or another:
When Melania Trump stayed behind in New York after her husband’s presidential inauguration, she said it was because she didn’t want to interrupt their then-10-year-old son Barron’s school year. News stories at the time concentrated on an apparent frostiness between the first couple and on the exorbitant taxpayer costs to protect Melania and Barron away from Washington.
Those stories are true, but Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan reveals in a new book that the first lady was also using her delayed arrival to the White House as leverage for renegotiating her prenuptial agreement with President Trump.
The campaign had been full of harsh news about Trump’s alleged sexual indiscretions and infidelities, from the “grab them by the p—y” Access Hollywood tape to an affair with Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal; Melania learned new details from the media coverage, Jordan writes.
The incoming first lady needed time to cool off, and “to amend her financial arrangement with Trump — what Melania referred to as ‘taking care of Barron,’ ” Jordan writes in “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump.”
Melania’s original prenup had not been incredibly generous, Jordan reports. But she has been married to Trump longer than both his ex-wives and had bargaining power: Her perceived calming effect on him was so great that Trump’s pals and at least one of Trump’s adult children exhorted her to come to the White House as soon as possible.
The 286-page book, which plays off the title of Trump’s well-known business guide, is a deeply reported look at the rise of the country’s only immigrant first lady since Louisa Adams.
For her book, Jordan conducted more than a hundred interviews, with everyone from the first lady’s Slovenian schoolmates to former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and she lays out an argument that Melania Trump is as devoted to her own mythmaking as her husband is to his.
“Both are avid creators of their own history,” Jordan writes, arguing that the #FreeMelania hashtag ought to be retired because of her consistent support of her husband and her moves to stay in the White House.
“She is . . . much more like him than it appears,” Jordan adds.
I have always thought that. It’s obvious that they have a transactional relationship. That’s the only thing Trump understands. And she has always struck me as a savvy player. So it’s not surprising that she would use her leverage in this way.
The rest of the story is worth reading if you’re a mind to dig into this. Melania is a total phony, of course. Her life is as much a fiction as his is. And she knows how to play him.
Observers in the White House had noticed an uptick in her mood by mid-2018 that might account for her being so willing to fight for a second term. According to three people close to Trump, Jordan writes, Melania had finally renegotiated the prenup to her liking. She had already been looking out for Barron’s future by making sure he had dual citizenship in Slovenia, which will position him to work in Europe for the Trump Organization when he comes of age.AD
Now, she had made sure he was not shut out of the family business. Jordan writes: “She wanted proof in writing that when it came to financial opportunities and inheritance, Barron would be treated as more of an equal to Trump’s oldest three children.”
Oh man, I don’t think those older Trumps are going to go along with that. They will likely even break into fights among themselves when Daddy finally checks out. Barron wouldn’t have a chance on his own. But with Mommy on his side it will be a formidable battle.
The big question is whether there will be anything worth fighting for.