Politics - News Analysis

Trump Made Melania Lie About Her Age When They Met Because ’30’ Sounded Too Old For Him

The first lady Melania Trump is an intriguing figure who has come to be known for keeping to herself, bucking White House tradition, and sparking conspiracy theories.

Whether her relationships within the administration, her sleeping arrangements within the White House, or the amount of power she flexes within her marriage with the president, a new book relays several details from insiders that shed new light on a private first lady.

The book, “Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography,” by CNN’s Kate Bennett, was released earlier this month and I have read the book to pull some highlights and lowlights.

Here are a few of the biggest takeaways from “Free, Melania”.

When Donald and Melania Trump first started dating, Trump had his girlfriend lie about her age.

In January 2000, Melania was in that famous spread in British GQ and the magazine said she was 26. However, as Bennett reports in her book, Melania was actually just 4-months shy of being 30.

Remember this shot of Melania nearly naked on a pretend Oval Office rug from now-defunct Talk Magazine in 2000?

In the issue the text says, “She’s 26, a model, and lives in a one-bedroom apartment. For now, at any rate. Donald Trump’s girlfriend Melania Knauss is getting ready for the White House.”

As Bennett points out, Melania was almost 30 here. Not 26.

Melania Trump also has an icy relationship with the second lady Karen Pence.

Bennett wrote that on a trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, either the first lady had not invited Pence to her “spacious and luxe” private cabin at the front of the plane or Pence didn’t accept an invitation. Trump also didn’t remove her 4-inch heels when the two landed and “almost comically towered” over the second lady, who was in flats.

This “confirmed” Bennett’s suspicions the two weren’t close, as Bennett said that Trump, who stands at 5 feet 11 inches, usually wears a low heel or flat when appearing alongside someone shorter or in lower shoes. Bennett wrote that the incident was not only uncharacteristic but struck her as “strange and telling” about their relationship.

The first lady not only has her own room but occupies a separate floor of the White House from her husband.

The book says the president sleeps in the master bedroom on the second level of the White House residence, while the first lady stays on the third floor in a two-room space that was previously occupied by the former first lady Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson.

Alongside her bedroom is a “glam room,” where Bennett says Trump does her makeup and hair in the mornings or winds down from the day in a silk robe. The quarters also have a Pilates machine for the first lady’s in-home workouts.

Bennett noted that this made the Trumps the first couple since the Kennedys and the Johnsons to have separate bedrooms in the residence and that rumors the first lady had responded to multiple reports of the president’s past affairs by kicking him out of the master bedroom didn’t make sense.

meet the author

Nicole Hickman James is a lifelong Democrat and political activist who first cut her teeth as a teenager volunteering for Mike Dukakis’ presidential campaign. She has worked and volunteered for John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, HFA (Hillary For America), and Organizing For Action. She’s passionate about liberal and progressive causes and considers President Obama her favorite president ever. She holds her Bachelor’s from Boston College in Economics and her Master's from Columbia, also in Economics. When not working as a writer, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her three college-aged children.

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