Melania and Donald Trump sleep apart: they reveal this and other details of the first lady's life in the White House
The author of the book "Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography" has made important revelations about the life of the first lady of the United States in the White House, including that she sometimes feels relegated by the preponderant role occupied by Ivanka, the daughter of the president.
The first lady of the United States, Melania Trump, sleeps in a different room from her husband, President Donald Trump, and sometimes feels relegated by the preponderant role occupied by Ivanka, the result of the president's marriage to his first wife, Ivana, explains CNN journalist Kate Bennett in her book "Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography."
In his work, which goes on sale this Tuesday in the US, Bennett, which covers the White House and matters related to the first lady, reveals the insides of Melania's life and sheds light on the relationship she has with her husband and with Ivanka.
OWN BEDROOM
Melania Trump lives in her own rooms inside the White House, something that makes the presidential couple one of the few who have not shared a bedroom, details the CNN journalist in her work.
The first lady not only does her day to day in rooms other than those in which Donald Trump attends, but she also decided to locate herself on a different floor from the one where her husband resides.
The book describes the inconveniences related to living in this historic building, namely that, despite the fact that the residence occupies more than 9,000 square meters, the wife of the commander-in-chief cannot walk through the gardens of the complex when she pleases, open a window without authorization from the Secret Service or adjust the thermostat at will.
A POWERFUL VOICE IN THE WEST WING
Melania Trump has more power than she really appears in the West Wing of the White House, where the offices of the Executive branch are located.
For example, Bennett points out that the first lady was directly responsible for the firing of Mira Ricardel, Trump's deputy national security adviser, after the two women had their falling out on the president's wife's trip to Africa in 2018.
In November of last year, the White House announced the counselor's departure after the first lady's office openly called for her dismissal.
According to the media, Ricardel clashed with the first lady's staff over an issue related to Melania's trip to Africa: The Wall Street Journal reported that Melania also suspected that Ricardel had leaked negative stories about her and his team to the press.
The first lady was also responsible -the book narrates- for the White House deciding in 2017 to dispense with the head of Service Angella Reid, who was in charge of supervising the administrative activities of the presidential mansion.
TENSE CALM BETWEEN MELANIA AND IVANKA
The relationship between the wife of Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump is not as friendly as it was before the family landed in the White House, sources from the first lady's environment expose in "Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography".
Despite the apparent cordial relationship the two women share, Ivanka's unprecedented and unofficial "first daughter" figure bothers Melania, Bennett argues, as she sometimes feels relegated to the background and has caused some family drama.
That tension was exemplified when Melania wore a Zara trench coat with the controversial message "I really dont care, do u?" (I really don't care, (and) you?) during a visit to the Mexican border in June 2018 to immigration detention centers for minors.
In Bennett's opinion, it was a message directed at Ivanka: "I believe, and still do, that the trench coat was a dart (directed) at Ivanka and her almost constant attempts to link to positive points of the Administration," writes the journalist.
THE DOG THAT WASN'T
A curious and apparently irrelevant anecdote that the author reveals, and that demonstrates the influence that the first lady has on the US president, is the fact that, at Melania's request, the Trumps were about to buy a dog for the residence presidential election despite the head of state's well-known aversion to pets and his phobia of germs in general.
Bennett assures that this wish was so close to materializing that Melania was even finding out details about breeds and the care that a dog requires.
Finally, the family decided that the man known as best friend had no place in their hearts, or at least in his house.
