Melania told staff to not call her 'first lady' as she took time to settle in at White House after Trump's win
Many were shocked and unprepared in the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election, which declared Donald Trump victorious. One among them was Melania Trump, who took her time to embrace her role as the first lady of the nation. So much so that she forbade her staff from addressing her as FLOTUS, a new book has revealed. "She said, 'Stop calling me first lady,'" one of the people who worked with her after the election told Mary Jordan, author of 'The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump,' which is due for release on June 16.
Excerpts of the book which "draws an unprecedented portrait of the first lady" based on interviews with more than 100 people in five countries, were published in the Washington Post. There were a number of reasons behind Melania's reluctance to embrace her role as the first lady. First of all, she disliked the idea of being scrutinized by the media 24/7 and having to deliver a public performance. She was also angry at the number of scandals unveiled during her husband's political campaign, including his alleged affairs with a number of women and sexist comments made by him that were later dismissed as "boy's locker room talk." Trump, meanwhile has denied cheating on the mother-of-one.
The book describes Melania as focused, ruthless and ambitious - someone who knew how to use people to climb up the social ladder and then quickly dispose of them when her objectives were realized. She "would seize an opportunity and put great effort into it. Then she would move on and never look back," Jordan noted. Before her husband's inauguration, Melania was also worried about the future of her son, Barron, who was just 10 years old at the time when Trump was beginning his presidency.
Melania wanted Barron to be treated equally with his much older siblings Don Jr, Ivanka, Eric, and Tiffany - Trump's children from his previous two marriages - and as a result, spent the first six months of Trump's presidency in New York drafting a new prenup for herself. She also reportedly wanted Barron to stay back in New York where his friends were and complete his schooling. However, she was forced to reconsider when she quickly realized that providing security for the first son in busy NYC was not only costly, it was also infuriating the residents whose children went to school with Barron and were having their lives disrupted due to his high profile presence.
"Simply getting Barron to his classes unleashed massive traffic problems around his school, Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on Manhattan’s Upper West Side," Jordan wrote. "Many of the other parents were busy, wealthy people and some began to seethe over the disruption and inconvenience, including delayed drop-offs and pickups and being told to 'hold' for Melania and Barron. Parents also worried about the safety of their own kids, even with the constant presence of the Secret Service. Not to mention that many of them were progressive New York Democrats who had voted for Hillary Clinton and couldn’t stand Trump."
Melania's office has refuted all the claims made in the book. "Yet another book about Mrs. Trump with false information and sources," said Stephanie Grisham, the first lady's chief of staff, in a statement to Daily Mail. "This book belongs in the fiction genre."