White House Slams New Melania Trump Biography as ‘False Information and Sources’

A new biography of first lady Melania Trump is out on Tuesday, June 16, and the White House is already denying its contents. In a statement given to journalists this week, the Trump administration has denied many of the allegations in the book, and denounced it in general. Author and Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan stands by her work.

The first lady’s chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, issued a statement to ABC News on Monday, saying this was “yet another book about Mrs. Trump with false information and sources. This book belongs in the fiction genre.” This was added to the end of a Good Morning America segment on Monday, previewing The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump by Mary Jordan. The book will be released everywhere in digital, print and audio formats on Tuesday.

Despite the White House’s denials, Jordan reportedly interviewed over 100 people for the book, with sources in five different countries. The result is a portrait of the first lady as a “chess player” as she put it, manipulating events in her own favor even within the White House.

“She’s like a ghost — everyone knows her, but no one does,” one insider told the author. On Good Morning America, Jordan herself explained: “She only came to the United States for the very first time when she was 26 years old. And 20 years later, she’s heading for the White House. So, I just wanted to find more information. Who is this person?”

A few of the more salacious tidbits from the book have already come out in early reviews and excerpts printed by Jordan’s employer, The Washington Post, where her reporting won her a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. For example, Jordan found that the reason Melania did not move into the White House for months after Trump assumed the presidency may have been for strategic reasons.

In 2017, Trump administration official claimed that Melania had remained in New York City so that her son Barron Trump could finish the semester at his current school. According to Jordan, however, she was also re-negotiating her pre-nuptial agreement with the president. Her goal was reportedly to ensure that Barron received equal opportunities and inheritances to his three adult siblings from Donald Trump‘s first marriage.

The book also includes evidence of an extreme rift between Melania and Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and a controversial White House adviser. Jordan claims that, before Melania moved in, Ivanka was trying to take over her wing of the White House and rename it from “The First Lady’s Office” to “The First Family’s Office.” Deputy press secretary Judd Deere told The Daily Mail: “This is totally false. The media is once again running untrue information from anonymous sources and not once did anyone fact check this with the White House or Ivanka Trump.”

The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump is available for pre-order now, and will be released on Tuesday, June 16.