Melania Trump visited her East Wing office only twice as first lady and because she used it so little, aides turned it into a “swag room” for wrapping gifts.
Aides could recall only two instances in which Melania Trump walked from the White House’s second-floor apartment to her East Wing office: once when then-aide Stephanie Winston Wolkoff had called for a meeting, and another “found imagined when she was nearby and wanted to be surprised’. her staff,” author Katie Rogers reveals this in her upcoming book ‘American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, out Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden.’
So assistants created what they called the “swag room”: a place to store and wrap gifts, since “her desk was the only empty surface large enough to assemble gifts.”
Melania Trump walks through her Christmas decorations in the East Wing of the White House, a place she rarely visits, in November 2017
Rogers’ book, out Tuesday, spotlights modern first ladies as two of them – Jill Biden and Melania Trump — are waiting to see if their spouses’ quest for a second term in the White House succeeds.
It follows the evolution of the role from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden.
About Melania Trump, Rogers, a White House reporter for the New York Times, reveals new details about Melania’s rivalry of stepdaughter Ivanka Trump, how Melania saw her role as first lady and what she is allowed to do when she gets four more years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Katie Rogers’ book about the modern first lady, “American Woman,” will be released Tuesday
Melania was a mysterious first lady. She was rarely seen in public, gave few interviews and even her signature initiative ‘Be Best’ left people wondering exactly what it meant (and hoped to achieve).
One of the surprising revelations of American Woman was how little physical time Melania spent in the East Wing, the part of the office space that houses the first lady team, the White House visitors’ office and the military affairs office.
Because it was not being used by the designated resident, assistants repurposed it.
They had installed Ikea-style shelves.
The gifts kept there, Rogers reveals, included: First Lady-themed coins and key chains, bowls etched with the image of the White House, an array of bowls made of pewter, soft robes for guests in the Executive Residence, leather desk sets, salt and pepper shakers, crystal bookends, baby rattles, golf balls and golf towels.
The gifts were kept under lock and key and access required a signature on an official sheet.
Melania enjoyed picking out gifts and sending them to friends and Trump allies. She did this from the White House residence and used a folder of photos of the inventory to make her selection.
There was one big downside to Melania’s absence that would come to influence first lady Jill Biden.
Melania Trump meets with Microsoft President Brad Smith and executive director of communications Carol Ann Brown in May 2019 at the Map Room, a place where she preferred to meet with aides because it was close to the White House residence
Melania Trump, with Donald Trump in the White House in 2018, rarely appeared in public and when she did, aides tried to get her to go to meetings or record videos as her hair and makeup were already done
The White House Military Office annexed a series of offices traditionally used by the first lady’s team, turning the unused space into a sensitive information facility, a secure place where classified and classified information can be viewed or exchanged. The facility still exists, much to the chagrin of several Biden East Wing aides who say they could use the property.”
Office space in the White House complex is at a premium and once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Melania was not interested in office life and instead camped out in the house where she occasionally called in staff to keep her informed of the happenings two floors below.
But her interest in the voluntary, unpaid role of first lady waned as the Trump administration continued to whine.
In the beginning, she met important guests and her assistants in the Map Room, which was near the elevator to the family home and easily accessible.
Often, Melania’s small staff would try to catch her on days “when she was getting her hair and makeup done” — usually for events at which she appeared with her husband — and convince her to record a video or attend a planning event for Be Best live,” Rogers writes. . “It always felt like a victory when she said yes.”
But one area Melania Trump was interested in was preserving the historic mansion for future use. She had studied architecture and design in school and seemed to really enjoy playing a role in the preservation of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
She oversaw much-needed renovations that brought the White House into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
She formed a committee to renew the White House Rose Garden, and so did she had a tennis pavilion installed with the aim of creating a space that future first families could use.
Both moves brought her immediate criticism. “Melania applauded the completion of the tennis pavilion and was immediately criticized for celebrating an architectural upgrade in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic,” Rogers wrote. ‘The redesign of the Rose Garden, although approved by a conservation committee, was derided by the public as an unnecessary facelift.’
Aides say Melania Trump’s interest in becoming first lady waned as Trump’s term progressed
Melania Trump’s revamped Rose Garden was immediately criticized as an ‘unnecessary facelift’
Melania Trump has added a tennis pavilion to the White House grounds
Melania did not campaign much for her husband in the 2020 elections. Unlike her husband, she accepted his loss “largely, aides said, because it meant she could return to her old life.”
Within days, she had instructed staff on how to pack the home, searched for schools in Florida for Barron and was ready to return to Palm Beach.
“Her biggest concern was whether she would still have access to security and people to drive her around,” her top aide Stephanie Grisham told Rogers.
As a former first lady, she receives lifelong Secret Service protection.