The latest Trump-related book that has political and media observers talking doesn’t focus on the president, but rather his wife, Melania.
CNN reporter Kate Bennett’s Free, Melania, an unauthorized biography of the First Lady, has been raising eyebrows, with journalists sharing some of the juicier revelations from the book.
One concerns the release of nude photos of Melania Trump in 2016, which were published in the New York Post. Bennett says that Melania Trump suspected that her husband’s associate Roger Stone was behind the leak, the Guardian reports. Stone, who is awaiting sentencing after being convicted last month of witness tampering and obstruction of justice, denied the charges.
Bennett also speculates that one of Melania’s most controversial moments—her decision to wear a jacket with the phrase “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” while visiting child migrants being detained at the U.S.-Mexico border—was directed at the president's daughter, the New York Times reports.
“I believed, and still do, that the jacket was a facetious jab at Ivanka and her near-constant attempts to attach herself for positive administration talking points,” Bennett explains.
The Times notes that Bennett doesn’t believe Melania and Ivanka Trump are close, and that the First Lady doesn’t especially care for Karen Pence, the vice president’s wife.
Nor is Melania very close to her husband, Bennett claims. She writes that the married couple don’t sleep in the same room, or even on the same floor—Trump sleeps on the second story, with Melania staying one level above.
Free, Melania was published on Tuesday by Flatiron Books.
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
