In an upcoming book by a one-time Melania Trump confidante, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff paints a picture of a self-involved First Lady at odds with her step-daughter and a President obsessed with projecting power, Politico reports.
Winston Wolkoff writes that while the public excuse for Melania’s hesitation to move to Washington, DC after the inauguration–that she wanted Barron to finish the school year at New York City’s exclusive Columbia Grammar–was true, Melania also didn’t want to move into the White House where she would have to use the shower and toilet used by Michelle Obama. Instead, she had the bathrooms in the residence completely renovated.
A member of the Trump Inauguration Committee whose company (formed in December 2016) received $26 million for event planning services related to the inauguration, Winston Wolkoff describes that Trump wanted a military-soaked inauguration.
“I want tanks and choppers. Make it look like North Korea,” [Trump] told them. Winston Wolkoff wrote: “He really wanted goose-stepping troops and armored tanks? That would break tradition and terrify half the country.”
Apparently jealous of her husband’s relationship with his oldest daughter, Melania also wanted Ivanka kept out of photos with Donald from the inauguration in a project dubbed “Operation Block Ivanka.”