Melania Trump renegotiated her prenup by refusing to move into the White House in 2017, according to a new book

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Melania Trump renegotiated her prenup by refusing to move into the White House in 2017, according to a new book
First Lady Melania Trump reads the book “The Little Rabbit” by Nicola Killen during a video recording to be shared online with children for Easter Wednesday, April 8, 2020The White House
  • A forthcoming book about first lady Melania Trump reveals some of the strategy behind her otherwise opaque public persona.
  • "The Art of Her Deal," by the Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan, says Melania's 2017 Trump Tower holdout was part of an effort to renegotiate her prenuptial agreement with President Donald Trump.
  • Melania remained in Manhattan in early 2017, at a great cost to taxpayers, to "amend her financial arrangement with Trump — what Melania referred to as 'taking care of Barron,'" Jordan wrote, according to a Post write-up ahead of the book's release on Tuesday.
  • Jordan wrote that part of the prenup renegotiation involved making sure Barron Trump, 14, would have a proper inheritance and a place in the Trump Organization; his dual American and Slovenian citizenship would allow him to work in Europe.
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It turns out there was a lot more to Melania Trump's 2017 Trump Tower holdout than previously known, according to a new book on the first lady.

Set to be released on Tuesday, "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump" by the Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan takes a look behind the opaque public persona of President Donald Trump's third wife.

When the first lady didn't move into the White House after the presidential inauguration in early 2017, the official White House line was that she did not want to disrupt her son Barron Trump's schooling.

But according to The Post's write-up of the book ahead of its release, Jordan wrote that Melania was actually looking to "amend her financial arrangement with Trump — what Melania referred to as 'taking care of Barron.'"

Though it came at a great cost to taxpayers because of the Secret Service detail required in Manhattan, Melania's leverage play paid off, Jordan said.

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She ended up getting the prenup renegotiated to ensure that Barron, 14, would get a proper inheritance and dual citizenship in the US and Slovenia so he could work for the Trump Organization in Europe, according to Jordan.

"She wanted proof in writing that when it came to financial opportunities and inheritance, Barron would be treated as more of an equal to Trump's oldest three children," Jordan wrote.

According to The Post, the first lady is described in the book as more political and engaged in her own mythmaking than her perplexing public appearances may indicate.

Jordan found that Melania didn't ever get a bachelor's degree, though she said under oath that she did, and that the former Slovenian model also failed to correct reports that lowballed her age.

One of the more than 100 interviews for the book was with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who endorsed Trump and initially ran the transition before being ousted by Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law.

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According to The Post, Christie told Jordan that Melania was a crucial sounding board for her husband and was often his first call after he got back to his plane from a rally.

"She always had commentary to give him, and I think that tells a lot about what he thinks of her," Christie told Jordan.

Jordan said that the first couple were more similar than many Americans may believe. "They are both fighters and survivors and prize loyalty over almost all else," she wrote.

Jordan added: "Neither the very public Trump nor the very private Melania has many close friends. Their loner instincts filter into their own marriage."

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