When Melania Trump stayed behind in New York as her husband assumed the presidency in 2017, the public rationale was that the newly-minted First Lady was hanging back to allow their son, Barron, to finish the school year. But according to a new book, there was another reason she was slow to relocate to Washington: After a campaign that unearthed new instances of her husband’s alleged infidelity and degrading comments toward women, Melania apparently used the move as leverage to renegotiate her prenuptial agreement with Donald Trump.
In the forthcoming tell-all about the First Lady, The Art of Her Deal, the Washington Post’s Mary Jordan reports that Melania Trump did not immediately join her husband at the White House after he was inaugurated so she could “amend her financial relationship” with him. Surely at least somewhat aware of Trump’s behavior, as he’d been a cartoonish sleaze for the whole of his public life, Melania was nevertheless caught off guard during the campaign, learning new details about her husband with the emergence of an Access Hollywood tape in which he describes his ability to “grab [women] by the pussy” and his affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal. Remaining in New York after Inauguration Day gave her time to cool off, Jordan writes, and gave her added bargaining power to improve what had initially been an unfavorable prenup, thanks to the supposed “calming effect” she had on her husband.
“She wanted proof in writing,” according to Jordan, “that when it came to financial opportunities and inheritance, Barron would be treated as more of an equal to Trump’s oldest three children.”
The machinations around the pre-nup would seem to lend weight to longstanding suspicions about the seemingly cold nature of the First Couple’s relationship. The two famously sleep in separate quarters—presumably so the president can eat burgers in bed while live-tweeting Fox News in peace—and demonstrate little chemistry in public appearances together. The frostiness has at times appeared to nearly break into outright hostility, as when Melania famously swatted away her husband’s hand as he tried to hold hers. Rumors of trouble in paradise—if being married to Donald John Trump can ever be said to be such — bubbled up again recently, when the president asked a dour Melania to smile during a bizarre photo-op at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine. The result was more of a grimace than a grin.
But while the #FreeMelania jokes have cast her as a hostage to her husband’s nightmare presidency, just like the rest of us, it’s worth remembering that she trafficked in the same racist birther nonsense as her worse half, and has been a defender of the Trump administration’s most horrific policies. Indeed, as Jordan’s reporting points out, Melania Trump has been a willing participant in her husband’s presidency—whatever the state of their romance may have been or may be now. At times rumored to be unhappy in the White House, Melania has, in fact, “told people she wants to win reelection,” according to Jordan. Far from steering clear of politics, sources told Jordan that she had encouraged her husband to run and has advised him on matters ranging from his campaign rallies to the selection of Mike Pence as his running mate. “She always had commentary to give him,” Chris Christie told Jordan, “and I think that tells a lot about what he thinks of her.” What she thinks of him, of course, may be another story.
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