IT WAS the walk of Melania Trump’s life, and she began it alone.
The massive SUV caravan with red and blue flashing lights had snaked its way from St. John’s Episcopal Church, where U.S. presidents-elect since Franklin Roosevelt have attended services before taking the oath of office. It slowly drove the short way along H Street, and down the normally barricaded Jackson Place to Pennsylvania Avenue, where it made a wide, sweeping turn onto the grounds of the White House. TV viewers caught a brief glimpse of the soon-to-be first lady waving through the tinted windows, only her hand visible, covered by a pale blue glove. Vehicle after vehicle passed the North Portico until, deep in the middle of the pack, a custom-built Suburban rolled to a stop; its blast-proof doors required the strength of two U.S. Secret Service agents to open. Near the portico’s white columns, photographers were jockeying for the best positions. The clicking of their camera shutters nearly drowned out the greetings.
President-elect Donald Trump hopped out and strode up the stairs to greet President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, who were standing at the door on the chilly, gray January morning on which Trump would become president. Eight years earlier, the Obamas had arrived to meet George W. and Laura Bush for coffee before the ride to the Capitol for the swearing-in, and now it was Donald and Melania Trump’s turn to be welcomed. Trump did not wait for his wife or glance at her. Seconds later, Melania exited from the black Suburban on the far side, walked around the hulking vehicle, and ascended the stairs solo. Barack Obama was the one to take her hand, guide her up the last step, and kiss both her cheeks. If Melania was the least bit disappointed that her husband didn’t wait for her, her face betrayed nothing. “That’s Donald,” she would say later.
“Horrible,” commented one woman who had worked in the White House for several administrations and was watching that morning. But what she and millions of television viewers did not know was that the greater Trump family inaugural drama had already happened, out of public view. Since Jimmy Carter became president in the 1970s, it has been tradition for incoming presidents to stay at Blair House for anywhere from a couple of days to nearly two weeks. A complex of four town houses that were merged together, Blair House is described as “the world’s most exclusive hotel” and is located diagonally across from the White House. Donald Trump, a man who likes his own bed and his own homes, wanted none of it. He had sent Keith Schiller, his longtime personal bodyguard and one of his most trusted aides, to visit Blair House in advance. Schiller knew what Trump liked, and he told his boss, “It’s small.” That was enough for the president-elect. Trump repeated, “It’s very small.” He is so particular about where he sleeps that during the campaign, his schedule was often dictated by whether or not he could sleep in his own bed at one of his own properties.
Trump indicated that he planned to stay a mile away, at the Trump International Hotel. Its luxurious Trump Townhouse billed itself as the largest hotel suite in Washington, at 6,300 square feet, with two stories and two spacious bedrooms, designer bed linens, a spa bathroom, fitness room, upper- and lower-level living rooms, a dining room able to seat sixteen—and a 55-inch HDTV. (After his 2005 wedding to Melania, Trump said that they would be honeymooning at Mar-a-Lago, because it was hard to find anyplace better.) Trump was used to having things exactly as he wanted, especially his television and remote controls. He was not a fan of Blair House’s much more modest TV setup. In keeping with the historic feel of the house, some of them were small and set on dressers—not the latest or biggest flat-screens that Trump preferred. Once in the White House, Trump quickly arranged for a large multiscreen digital setup so he could watch different feeds simultaneously.
“Up until the last minute, he was not staying there,” said a person closely involved with the inauguration. But Trump’s team pushed back, as did the Secret Service, which was not keen to protect the incoming president inside a public hotel swarming with guests. Trump finally relented, agreeing to stay for one night only and to have his children and grandchildren join him. Ivanka brought sheets from the Trump International Hotel to Blair House for the overnight stay, to “feel more at home.”
The Trump family works together and sometimes vacations together, but they are used to having their own space and a lot of it. Ivanka, her husband, Jared, and their three children have their own separate mansion at Bedminster, Trump’s private golf club on over five hundred acres in New Jersey. Donald and Melania aren’t known for inviting their grandkids to cuddle with them in bed in the morning, as George H. W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, famously used to do with their grandchildren. In fact, no matter which of his properties he is visiting, Trump sleeps in a separate bedroom that has been decorated to his taste—he favors darker colored walls and rugs, while Melania likes whites and light colors. Trump typically wakes around 5:00 a.m., well before Melania, and turns on his televisions.
But that night at Blair House, there were eight grandchildren, including Ivanka’s ten-month-old son, Theodore, as well as nannies and in-laws. And despite the fourteen bedrooms, it seemed to some of the Trumps that they were in close quarters in a tight space. Before arriving at Blair House, the family had been briefed on all the famous people who had slept at Blair, from Abraham Lincoln to Winston Churchill, and had been given the schedule for their minute-by-minute movements the next day. The excitement was palpable. Some of the Trumps barely slept, and others rose before dawn. Trump himself started the day in a foul mood, “really out of sorts,” as one of his group described it. Another said he felt “trapped,” cooped up with too many family members “all under the same roof.” He was antsy and wanted to go out, but the Secret Service insisted that he stay put.
Even worse, the morning of the inaugural, the Secret Service security procedures delayed the arrival of a whole group of personal stylists and assistants hired by the Trumps to fix their makeup and hair. Once they finally entered, there was a mad rush to get camera ready and out the door in time for the service at St. John’s. By the time the family departed, some seemed to agree with the soon-to-be-president’s hesitation about the accommodations. “It wasn’t what we were expecting,” Melania was heard to say that morning. But she was also used to dealing with her husband’s moods and, as she has so often, simply focused on what came next.
She had been married to him for twelve years and knew his habits. Their White House arrival, where he left Melania trailing behind him, was in many ways typical Trump. (He would cause a stir the next year by walking in front of Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle.) Melania Trump smiled for the cameras, politely greeted the Obamas, and then stood beside her husband.
Standing outside on the North Portico, the men were predictably dressed: dark suits, white shirts, Obama in a blue tie, Trump in a red one. The ties were seen as a fashion nod to the TV news networks’ blue and red electoral maps. The “money shot” for photographers was what Mrs. Trump and Mrs. Obama were wearing. Michelle, in her understated red and black tweed jacquard dress, stood beside Melania in a powder blue cashmere dress with a matching bolero jacket. Her blue outfit had been designed by Ralph Lauren—who had also designed the white pantsuit worn that day by Hillary Clinton. (There are many unexpected connections between the Trumps and the Clintons, who were among the guests at Donald and Melania’s wedding.) While many others would bundle up in full-length coats, Melania did not. Her choice was “classic and sophisticated,” according to Robin Givhan, the fashion critic for the Washington Post, who noted that others had compared her silhouette to that of the first lady Jackie Kennedy.
For years, Melania Trump had set her sights on walking the fashion runways of Milan, Paris, and New York. As a model, she had spent years studying how to walk, how to stand, how to tilt her head for a better camera angle. Her preparation for political life was different from that of any president’s spouse before her. In slightly more than two hours, her husband would be sworn in as president of the United States, and she would become its first lady. Her image would be broadcast around the world. She would hold two Bibles for the swearing-in, smile through a bill signing and lunch, wave to the crowds during the parade up Pennsylvania Avenue, and awkwardly dance with her husband at three inaugural balls. (Donald Trump is not known as a dancer. Even when he used to frequent the New York nightclub Studio 54, no one remembered ever seeing him on the dance floor.)
Her husband delivered a dark “America First” inaugural address, in which he vowed to “protect our borders from the ravages of other countries.” Melania made no public comments but posted a photo to Instagram of herself holding the Bibles as her husband took the oath of office. With little but her appearance to go on, thousands of words of commentary would be written and spoken by journalists, fashion writers, and others, dissecting every Melania facial expression and wardrobe choice. Givhan would note that selecting the French-born designer Hervé Pierre for her off-the-shoulder white crepe inaugural ball gown “seemed like a bit of an olive branch after so much talk of closed borders and nationalism.”
Every public movement for an inauguration is choreographed, from where to stand to how fast to walk, with some of the more interesting moments taking place behind the scenes, inside the fleet of presidential cars and Capitol building “holding rooms.” Melania’s gesture of bringing a gift to Michelle Obama turned into an awkward incident because it had not been scripted and there was nowhere to set the box during the group photo. Other encounters that day were more challenging because of the highly divisive campaign. Although it appeared that there was no one else except the incoming and outgoing first ladies riding in the limo to the Capitol, in fact, there was. Waiting inside a limousine with blackened windows was Abigail Blunt, wife of Missouri Republican senator Roy Blunt. As chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Blunt was responsible for overseeing the presidential inauguration. He was already seated inside the presidential limo to accompany Barack Obama and Donald Trump, presumably also to help ensure a more cordial ride to the Capitol.
For prior inaugurals, sometimes a third official rode with the two presidents, but the tradition was not to have Senate spouses ride in the car with the two first ladies. But this was no ordinary inauguration. Abby Blunt’s presence was meant to smooth over what had the potential to be an exceptionally awkward trip. During the ten minutes together, the conversation stayed on the weather and children.
For all the pomp and circumstance of a presidential inauguration, the arrival at the Capitol is remarkably ordinary. The outgoing and incoming presidents and their spouses enter through a side door into a narrow gray hallway. From there, they are led to a windowless interior room to wait for the precise moment to begin their walk out to the inauguration platform. Trump’s five children—Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron—would go first. Three prior presidents and their wives would be next, each stepping into the light drizzle as television cameras zoomed in. Only toward the end would Melania walk through the Capitol’s dark underground stone crypt, up a flight of stairs, and through the bright, soaring Rotunda. She entered through the heavy, red velvet curtains, escorted by a marine in full-dress uniform, who would lead her to the specially constructed platform where the swearing-in would occur.
The stage was another minefield of protocol. Those seated closest to the podium had comfortable, high-back cushioned chairs. But after the first two rows, guests, including Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric, sat on ordinary black folding chairs. Trained on the key dignitaries, the high-definition television cameras missed nothing. Clips showing Melania alternately smiling at her husband and then appearing to scowl when he turned around flooded the internet, with the hashtag #FreeMelania, while other images captured Michelle Obama looking skeptically at the newly inaugurated president.
Purposefully out of the spotlight but in the crowd were Donald Trump’s two ex-wives, Ivana Trump and Marla Maples. Trump had instructed his aides to make sure that they were never in the same photo as Melania, telling them it was “her day.” Ivana, mother of Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, was seen wading through the thousands along the parade route pushing her ninety-year-old mother in a wheelchair. Marla posted an Instagram picture of herself wearing a New York Yankees cap to keep dry in the drizzle. Even though her daughter, Tiffany, was in the parade, she was not in the covered seating offered to donors and close friends.
Guests on the podium noted that Melania “understood the gravity of the moment.” She had grown up under a Communist dictator in Yugoslavia, and now at age forty-six, her husband was being sworn in as president and she was becoming the first lady of the United States, her Slovenian parents and her American son beside her.
“PEOPLE SAY, ‘Oh, she’s a model, therefore she must be dumb.’ There’s nothing dumb about her,” Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, who was later convicted for lying and witness tampering, told me in 2016, before his legal troubles began. Stone had known Melania since the late 1990s, when she started dating Trump. “She’s a balancing influence on him, a very positive influence,” he said. According to Stone, Melania encouraged Trump to run. “She’s the one who ultimately said, ‘You know, Donald, stop talking about running for president and do it. If you’re going to do it, do it. But if you’re not going to do it, stop talking about it because it’s getting old. And if you run, you’re going to win.’ ” During the campaign, Trump would describe Melania as “my best pollster.” It was Melania who told Trump that his poll numbers would shoot up once he officially announced. “There’s a lot of people inclined to you,” she told her husband, “but they won’t vote for you in the poll because they don’t think you’re running.”
The night before the inauguration, Melania and Trump hosted a private candlelight dinner for hundreds of guests inside the atrium at Union Station, the Beaux Arts–style train station dating from 1907. The dinner for friends and supporters was an event that Melania had helped plan, down to the slender gold candlesticks, the centerpieces of white roses flanked by bunches of green grapes, and the coordinating gold flatware on the tables. She wore a sleek, custom-made gold Reem Acra gown. Trump’s list of personal guests included more than one hundred fifty people, among them a big group of pilots who flew “Trump Force One,” his personal Boeing 757. Don Jr. invited nearly as many people. Ivanka and Eric had long lists of attendees, too.
But Melania had fewer than forty people on her personal invitation list, including a number who had recently helped her or worked for her, such as lawyer Charles Harder, decorator Tham Kannalikham, and makeup artist Nicole Bryl. Melania also invited a doctor who had reportedly cared for her mother—a signal to some guests that one of the reasons Melania had been so invisible during the campaign was that she was helping her mother through an illness. There were no childhood friends; even her sister, Ines, was absent.
The Trump inaugural was held on a Friday, and the next day a massive Women’s March of Trump protesters, some carrying #FreeMelania placards, would fill the same Washington streets. By Sunday, Melania Trump would be gone. She had flown back to New York with Barron. The ten-year-old had school that week, and Melania had already declared that he would be finishing the term before moving to Washington. That Sunday, January 22, also happened to be the Trumps’ twelfth wedding anniversary. Trump tweeted about the Women’s March, protesters, his standing ovations at the CIA, and his television ratings, but there was nothing public from either spouse to mark their wedding day.