8 juicy details from the new Melania Trump
tell-all book
For his inauguration, the president wanted a North
Korean-style military parade, right down to the “goose-stepping troops and
armored tanks.”
By DANIEL
LIPPMAN
08/29/2020
04:11 PM EDT
Updated:
08/29/2020 05:20 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/29/new-melania-trump-tell-all-book-404926
First Lady
Melania Trump’s former senior adviser and close friend has written a tell-all
book that describes the first lady as someone who can’t be trusted and who
often competed for influence in the White House with Ivanka Trump.
Stephanie
Winston Wolkoff’s new book “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship
with the First Lady,” reveals that Melania wanted to block Ivanka’s face from
appearing in photos of Donald Trump taking the oath of office, in a maneuver
dubbed “Operation Block Ivanka.” (The operation was mostly successful.)
The
reportedly icy relationship between Melania and Ivanka is a major theme of the
book, and burst into the public eye on Thursday night at Trump’s convention
acceptance speech. That’s when a short video of Melania smiling at Ivanka,
followed by her facial expression quickly turning into a scowl, went viral,
garnering 20 million views on Twitter.
A person
close to the White House confirmed that there have been tensions between the
two and “it was clear that the First Lady was not a fan of Ivanka trying to
make the East Wing a family office.”
But a
person familiar with how the West Wing worked at the time said: "There was
never once discussion about an East Wing office. She always wanted to be in the
policy office of the West Wing between the Domestic Policy Council and the
National Economic Council."
Winston
Wolkoff, a longtime Manhattan fashion and society party planner, was heavily
involved in the planning of the president’s inauguration before leaving the
White House in Feb. 2018 after negative reporting about her inauguration role
appeared in the New York Times. In her book, she describes how Melania didn’t
want to move to the White House right away in part because she didn’t want to
have to use the same shower and toilet as former First Lady Michelle Obama and
was waiting for the bathroom to be renovated.
She also
describes the difficulties of being first lady, including early on when Melania
didn’t even have access to her husband’s schedule. Melania also faced an
unrelenting media climate where she got mostly negative press for the first
five months of being first lady because she had stayed in New York as Barron
finished out his school year. But Winston Wolkoff also describes a fun side of
Melania, who loves using emojis in text messages, and was her frequent lunchtime
companion until they had a falling out two years ago. The two no longer speak,
according to the book.
Stephanie
Grisham, Melania Trump’s chief of staff and spokesperson, said in a statement:
“This book is not only wildly self-aggrandizing, it’s just not truthful. It is
an exercise in bizarre twisting of the truth and misguided blame for the sake
of self-pity. It’s unfortunate and concerning that she’s overstated their
friendship and her very brief role in the White House to this degree.”
An early
copy of the book, which publishes Tuesday, was shared with POLITICO. Here are
some of its most revelatory nuggets:
— Donald
Trump wanted his inauguration to look like a North Korean military parade. When
discussing the parade with Winston Wolkoff and Ivanka during the transition,
Trump said: “I want tanks and choppers. Make it look like North Korea,” he told
them. Winston Wolkoff wrote: “He really wanted goose-stepping troops and
armored tanks? That would break tradition and terrify half the country.”
When asked
for comment, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement:
“The President loves our military but this is absolutely not true.”
For the
inauguration, Mark Burnett, the creator of “The Apprentice,” the television
show which paved the way for Trump’s popularity, also wanted to “light the sky
with drones, and Donald and Melania loved the idea.” No drones ended up being
used to spice up the inauguration — they could have posed a safety risk.
—
Inauguration officials, led by former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates,
briefly considered having Trump and his entourage drive across the country for
two to three days right before the inauguration in a “Sea to Shining Sea” trip.
“Donald couldn’t walk down Fifth Avenue and the PIC [Presidential Inaugural
Committee] was proposing to have him travel three thousand miles on unsecure
routes in three days? Was this a joke?” she writes.
Gates,
whose book "Wicked Game" is coming out this fall, told POLITICO that
he "thought it was a fantastic idea" because the inauguration
organizers wanted to make it "the people’s inauguration." But he said
it was actually going to be a "flying tour" with stops in three or
four cities from West to East, but the tour didn't end up materializing.
Another
idea that was briefly considered: the “Ivanka Trump/Leo DiCaprio Environmental
Ball” that was going to be held at the National Portrait Gallery. “Give me a
break!” Melania said about the proposed event, which never went anywhere.
— Kayleigh
McEnany, who is now White House press secretary, was once interested in
becoming Melania’s chief of staff. Melania “really liked” McEnany and was
especially impressed with her Harvard Law degree. Because vetting took a while,
McEnany eventually instead took a job of national spokesperson for the RNC,
which raised eyebrows with Melania. The first lady texted Winston Wolkoff
saying: “She prefer [sic] to do this than being [my] senior advisor?
Seriously?” McEnany told Winston Wolkoff that she had met with “the family,”
and they preferred that she be their spokesperson on the outside. (Asked for
comment, White House spokesperson Sarah Matthews said in a statement: “Kayleigh
would have been incredibly honored to work for the First Lady but had already
accepted an opportunity with the RNC.”)
— Melania’s
team considered and then rejected a variety of names for her major initiative,
which is aimed at helping children develop healthy habits. “Children First,”
“Shield Your Children,” “Be a Cyber Buddy,” “Protect Your Children” and “Speak
Up” were among the names that were floated internally but cast aside, although
not before Winston Wolkoff bought domain names for them and others on GoDaddy
with her own money.
The
initiative eventually became “Be Best,” which Melania came up with herself,
although Winston Wolkoff told her that the “phrase sounded illiterate” and
should instead be “Be the Best” or “Be Your Best.” “No,” Winston Wolkoff
writes. “Melania, lover of Sharpies, drew the two-word logo with block letters
and said, ‘I drew it myself, so no one say I plagiarized it,” a likely
reference to how Melania’s 2016 convention speech had plagiarized some of what
Michelle Obama had said at a previous Democratic convention.
— Melania
and Jared Kushner and Ivanka are big fans of the Kennedys and their Camelot
myth. “It’s no coincidence that all three of their children—Arabella, Joseph,
and Theodore—share names with Kennedy family members. Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy and
Joseph Kennedy you know; Arabella Kennedy was JFK and Jackie’s stillborn
daughter,” Winston Wolkoff writes.
— Melania
and Donald Trump are not fans of Valentine’s Day or of being very sentimental
towards each other. Winston Wolkoff said she never remembers Melania telling
her that her husband had sent her flowers or taken her out for Valentine’s Day.
She also never mentioned planning a sweet surprise for Donald either. Melania
once texted her, “Don’t like Valentine’s Day. So commercial” and later texted,
“Donald thinks the same way. We don’t care about Valentine’s Day.”
— Melania
doesn’t place a high importance on other people’s wants and desires, according
to the book. Winston Wolkoff says that she has sometimes said over the years:
“Pleasing anyone else is not my priority!” The author said that she wished she
had Melania’s confidence and her ability to put herself first without thinking
much of others.
— Michael
Cohen, the “slavishly devoted” former Trump fixer who pleaded guilty to tax
fraud, making false statements and campaign finance violations, helped get
Barron Trump, the son of Donald and Melania, into a top Manhattan private
school, Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, where two of Winston Wolkoff’s
kids went as well.
Winston
Wolkoff said that Melania “enlisted” Cohen to help Barron get into schools,
including Columbia Grammar, where he served on the board. Winston Wolkoff also
writes about how even though most parents at the school were Democrats, Melania
was “inundated” with requests for playdates with Barron after Trump won the
presidency.
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