A new book describes topics that Donald Trump and Melania Trump fought about during their time in the White House — including which cable news channel to watch.
In American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden, New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers writes that Melania Trump watched CNN “voraciously”, according to People.
Donald Trump, of course, preferred the friendlier coverage he received on Fox News, though his relationship with the network has become strained in recent years.
Donald and Melania Trump’s differing tastes came to a head in July 2018, Rogers writes, when the president grew “incensed that his wife’s television was tuned to CNN aboard Air Force One during an overseas trip.”
He reportedly ordered that all the TVs on the plane and in their individual hotel suites be tuned to Fox News henceforth.
Rogers and fellow Times reporter Maggie Haberman reported about the blow-up at the time, citing an internal email between White House officials.
Another dispute described in the book occurred after reports were published in 2018 about a hush money payment given to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence on an alleged affair she had with Donald Trump in 2006.
After the news broke, Melania Trump backed out of an overseas trip with her husband.
“I think she was pissed at Trump and wanted him to be a little humiliated that she took off,” Stephanie Grisham, a former top aide to Melania Trump, tells Rogers in the book.
American Woman, released Tuesday, explores the “changing role of the twenty-first-century First Lady”, according to a book synopsis.