With the Trump family, it sometimes seems like it’s one controversy after another. In fact, controversies about one thing eventually lead to madecontroversies about something else entirely.
The best example of this occurred back when Melania Trump refused to move into the White House with her then-10-year-old son Barron. Melania and Barron did not move into the White House until five month’s into Donald Trump’s presidency.
At the time, the Trumps said it was so that Barron could finish out his school year at the same school he was attending in New York.
But now allegations have come out that Melania was actually buying time to renegotiate her prenuptial agreement with Donald Trump.
How did this story keep shifting, and what’s really going on? Here is the unknown truth of Melania Trump’s pre-nup renegotiation.
Melania’s original story
People tend to underestimate Melania Trump. However, it’s increasingly clear that she’s learned quite a few tricks from her “Art of the Deal” husband.
For example, the cover story for this pre-nup renegotiation was masterful. She told the world she was staying in New York rather than moving into the White House so that Barron could finish up his school year without disruption.
As excuses went, it seemed iron-clad. Who could doubt a mother’s devotion to her son? Unfortunately for Melania, her public reasoning for staying in New York still invited serious scrutiny.
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Public controversy
Melania staying in New York ended up inviting a lot of public debate. But it wasn’t about her devotion to her child. Instead, the debate was all about taxpayer dollars!
By staying in New York, Melania effectively doubled their family’s need for Secret Service protection. And needing Secret Service protection in both New York and Washington meant that taxpayers were shouldering twice the typical cost of protecting the president and his family.
On top of the taxpayer rage, rumors swirled that Melania was deliberately keeping her distance from Donald. After all, this was shortly after the infamous Access Hollywood clip where Donald bragged about sexually assaulting women.
Donald Trump’s growing extramarital controversies
At the time, many people thought the Access Hollywood leak would be the end of Donald Trump’s presidential chances. This was the clip that featured his infamous admission that he liked to “grab” women by the genitals.
While Trump defenders would later claim this was simply “locker room talk,” it occurred around the same time that a number of women made allegations that they were sexually assaulted by Trump. With allegations of abuse and admission of assault, Trump looked like an absolute monster to many.
That’s why so many people thought that Melania was staying in New York and gearing up for a divorce. As it turns out, she was allegedly doing something else entirely: renegotiating her pre-nup with Donald Trump.
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The pre-nup revelation
In June 2020, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mary Jordan released a book entitled The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump. The book does a real deep dive into Melania’s life, and it includes a bombshell about her time in New York.
According to the book, her presence in New York gave her the leverage necessary to renegotiate her prenuptial agreement. With the controversies surrounding both Donald and Melania at that point, she knew that moving herself and Barron into the White House would make for good public relations.
However, Melania had one more surprise for us. While the idea of forcibly renegotiating a pre-nup may make you think she’s a gold digger, Melania really was still putting Barron first.
Putting her son first
If I’m being honest, Melania Trump doesn’t really need more money. Even if she were to divorce Donald Trump today, she has enough cash to easily last a lifetime.
What was her pre-nup power move about, then? According to Mary Jordan, as reported by The New York Times, Melania wanted better financial protections for Barron and “wanted proof in writing… when it came to financial opportunities and inheritance” for her boy.
We don’t know what these new protections and financial opportunities actually amount to. But it seems that the rumors of Melania being fiercely protective toward her son are completely true.
Unless you ask the White House, that is.
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Melania’s camp denies the allegations
Mary Jordan’s book on Melania functions much like an unauthorized biography. And the White House wasted no time leaning into just how unauthorized it is.
Melania’s own chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, denies the claims in the book. She went as far as to tell the New York Times, “Yet another book about Mrs. Trump with false information and sources. This book belongs in the fiction genre.”
For those who have followed the story closely, this leaves a simple question: just who should we believe?
Grisham was quick to dismiss this book as little more than a work of fiction. However, Mary Jordan is a veteran journalist and researcher with a Pulitzer Prize under her belt. And she didn’t compile the book in a vacuum — instead, she interviewed more than 100 sources before writing, according to Forbes.
For now, with the coronavirus pandemic raging, the question may no longer be “Will Barron Trump move into the White House?” but “Will Barron Trump return to school in the fall?“