Biographer about Melania and Donald Trump – a long-distance relationship in the White House

What does Melania Trump want? Biographer Mary Jordan reports about a first lady who has a huge influence behind the scenes on the US president – and who seems to be cheating on her knowledge of German.

On Melania Trump looks at a large part of the world with a mixture of ridicule, pity and lack of understanding – for years there have been calls for “Liberated Melania”. But ultimately little is known about the American first lady, after all, she herself reveals almost nothing about herself in public.

The “Washington Post” journalist Mary Jordan describes in a new unofficial biography the 50-year-old as an influential figure in the White House, who uses her power for her own interests, but also provides her husband with decisive support. Love, says Jordan in an interview with t-online.de, “is extremely complicated with the Trumps”.

She talks about the relationship of the couple, who spends a great deal of time separated, but still has a special relationship, about their influence in personnel matters and expresses doubts about the First Lady’s claim that she speaks foreign languages ​​such as German.

t-online.de: Ms. Jordan, in your book you describe how Melania Trump renegotiated and prevailed after her husband’s election victory in 2016. Who actually exercises power in this regard?

Mary Jordan: It’s all about power. Trump himself speaks in these categories when he celebrates himself as the world’s largest dealmaker. He says you have to have something in hand that the other wants or better still needs. The fascinating thing is that Melania waited very patiently for the moment when she had the greatest power over her husband to renegotiate her marriage contract.

What did she do?

She studied very carefully what was known about Trump’s marriage contracts with his first two wives. After his election victory, she stayed in New York. He needed her in the White House. The First Lady’s office should no longer be empty, he no longer wanted embarrassing pictures of her knocking his hand away.

Mary Jordan, 59, is Political-Reporter for the “Washington Post” and former foreign correspondent. With her husband she won one Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the conditions in Mexican prisons. “The Art of Her Deal“, her book on Melania Trump, was published in the middle of June USA.

And now?

Now she is happy. She wanted her son Barron to be taken care of. Trump’s full attention is on his three children from his first marriage: Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric. The two younger, Tiffany from marriage number two, and Barron are always in the back. Melania wanted to protect Barron, so she put it. Melania is mom bear. In pretty much everything she does, she thinks of her son.

The Trumps with son Barron (14 years): “In pretty much everything she does, she thinks of her son.” (Source: Yuri Gripas / Reuters)

How does she use her power in the White House?

It does not interfere in individual projects. Your power lies in personnel issues. If you want to advise Trump or don’t want to be released by him, you need Melania’s approval. The less Trump trusts his environment, the more important it becomes. He trusts your judgment. Some advisors told me that they were called to the White House residence for confidential discussions, where not only Trump was waiting, but also his wife. Many see Melania, for example, as decisive for Trump at the time Mike Pence made his vice presidential candidate. So it has great power.

How important is the first lady for her husband’s political success?

It is the most popular of the Trumps. It is crucial for his re-election. Half of the voters are women. When she appeared in 2016 and praised him, many voters said: “He can’t be that bad after all”. I heard that again and again in the 2016 election campaign. It is also so important because he has already divorced twice. It would look really bad for him if he split up a third time.

Does Melania love her Donald?

Love is complicated for many people and extremely complicated for the Trumps. Two things are important here: Firstly, unlike almost every other married couple, they spend an extraordinary amount of time separately. They have separate schedules, they get up separately. Trump gets up in his own bedroom at five, and much later in her. They don’t eat together, they don’t spend free time together. How does Trump spend his free time? On the golf course and not with his wife.

Rather not what is commonly understood as love.

I think the relationship has changed after reporting reports of Trump’s affairs with Stormy Daniels and Karen MacDougal gave. And after her son Barron was born. Interestingly, Trump had his affairs right after birth. But they still have a special connection when they are together or on the phone, as they often do after the president’s public appearances.

What does this connection look like?

He trusts her and she helps him. And she admires him for what he did: how he became president. How he builds a direct connection to the audience during his performances, while she doesn’t like to speak publicly. Therefore, she particularly admires how his followers cheer him on the performances. And he admires that she is never as impulsive as he is. So: you have a relationship, albeit a complicated one.

Trump at a reception in the White House: great influence on personnel decisions in the government headquarters. (Source: Oliver Contreras / Getty Images)

Ms. Trump claimed that she spoke French, Italian, and German in addition to English. This information is also found in many biographies. Does the First Lady really speak German?

There is no evidence of this. I spent months researching these claims and spoke to a lot of people in Germany. Both German photographers who spent hours with her when she was in her twenties and native German speakers who met her as a first lady said that she had never spoken German to them and that they had never heard her speak German to others. The same applies to French and Italian.

The Trumps met in 2017 Pope Franciswho addressed the First Lady in Italian.

Yes, and she couldn’t respond until the question was translated. I asked the White House if there was any moment where she actually speaks German, French or Italian beyond a “Ciao” or “Bonjour”. There are even recordings by Jackie Kennedy that prove her fluent French. That was in the sixties. Today, where everyone can film on the phone, there should be recordings.

And?

I didn’t get an answer. The question is only interesting because it has asserted this about itself and continues to do so. It is one of the characteristics of the First Lady that are most mentioned. Although she has that heavy accent when she speaks English, they say, but she speaks all these other languages.

So she’s lying about her knowledge of German?

Well, we know that Donald Trump exaggerates. He is exaggerating in his height, in the number of floors of his Trump Tower in New York, he is exaggerating in everything. It seems as if Melania is exaggerating some parts of her CV and this obviously includes knowledge of German.

Melania Trump during a speech in Baltimore: The First Lady “does not like to speak publicly”. (Source: Erin Scott / Reuters)

Let’s get back to the White House. The First Lady occasionally disagreed with the President, for example in the dispute over family separation on the southern border with Mexico. What is behind it: does it speak out of its own conviction? Or do they play a variant of “Good Cop / Bad Cop”?

Often this is actually a “good cop / bad cop” strategy and is done in consultation with the president, for example if he has made a mistake and wants to correct something. It is then more practical to say “my wife convinced me” than to admit that his political critics and opponents were right. So it was with the family separations where the president knew that he had made a mistake. In fact, Melania did not agree with this policy. There are moments when she clearly contradicts him simply because she thinks something else is right. So you don’t coordinate that all the time, but much more often than you think.

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With your interview requests for the book, you were blown away by the First Lady. You only made extensive calls once, during the 2016 election campaign. What was your insight from this personal conversation?

At that time she came across very warmly, very differently than her image would suggest. She has the image of an ice queen. At that time she looked very different to me. She laughed, she was smart, it looked like I was talking to a different person from the one you see in public.

The couple in 1999 at a film premiere in New York: “An extraordinary story that fits America.” (Source: Jeff Christensen / Reuters)

The White House and the First Lady themselves are extremely closed.

Yes, I addressed a lot of simple factual questions to the White House – but I was blown away with everything. I find it fascinating that Melania doesn’t talk about her story. That’s why many think she has something to hide from her past. But when I researched her life in Paris, Milan and Ljubljana, I found that she actually had a very normal life. She just worked very hard and disciplined. She came to the USA at the age of 26 as an immigrant and was first lady 20 years later. This is an extraordinary story that fits America. I find it fascinating that she doesn’t talk about it and has made herself a mystery.

The president is in political crisis. The polls are bad on the crises surrounding Corona and racism he finds no answer. What does the First Lady advise him in such a situation?

Melania spends a large part of her day reading everything that is written about Trump and her. That irritates some advisors in the White House. Because she points him out to critics and then he gets in a bad mood. So she knows exactly how big the anger is right now. During the impeachment, there was a kind of bunker mentality that welded her and her husband together. She felt that the Trump name was wrongly soiled. In the current situation, their behavior becomes very interesting. She always thinks about what’s good for her son Barron. It will be exciting to see how much election campaign she will do and how much she really wants to stay in the White House.

Ms. Jordan, thank you for the interview.

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