Donald and Melania Trump’s secret renovation turf war as part of the president’s extreme makeover of the White House has been exposed.
Existing items in the White House “vanished” as the president redecorated while his wife was away, according to Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, a forthcoming book by White House correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
The book reports that President Trump, 80, bequeathed the traditional master bedroom in the White House to his wife Melania, 56, and transformed the adjacent room, known as the second-floor “living room,” for his own boudoir.
The president’s nocturnal habits have been well-documented, with members of his own administration saying he gets by on limited sleep and frequently embarks on Truth Social rage-posting sprees in the early hours of the morning.
However, the book says Trump filled his new solo bedroom with gold objects that had “vanished” from their original location, including some he personally transported in from the corridor.
“Items were spirited from the second-floor corridor into the President’s bedroom,” Haberman and Swan wrote. “Sometimes Trump carried the objects in himself, rearranging things across the private quarters on a whim.”
Melania had selected the decor during the president’s first term, but as she spent less time in Washington at the start of his second term, Trump had free rein to rearrange things to his own taste.
“Once, when staff gently reminded the president that he was taking things from the Center Hall his wife had personally selected, he made clear he didn’t care,” the authors wrote.
Portraying something closer to a reality TV renovation show, the book said Trump “seemed almost to be competing with her—determined to have the better room."
That included moving a gold-leaf-framed mirror, which was originally part of Melania’s redesign of the Queen’s Bedroom on the second floor. It has now been repurposed outside the Oval Office on the Colonnade, where people use it to take selfies.
“The President’s redecorating generated such a flurry of activity that staff often felt caught between the two Trumps,” the book reads, noting that White House staff would attempt to replace missing items by sending photographs of potential replacements to Melania for approval.
“Trump’s obsessive focus on interior decorating made the staff yearn for the first lady to return and hopefully rein him in,” Haberman and Swan wrote.
The authors also claim the Trumps had disagreements over plans for the iconic Rose Garden at the White House.
The garden was originally built in 1913 by First Lady Ellen Wilson and landscape architect George Burnap, and was given its most famous makeover by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962.
During Trump’s first term in 2020, Melania updated the garden’s infrastructure and plantings and fixed walkway accessibility to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The book claims Melania objected to her husband’s plan to pave over the lawn to recreate a patio space similar to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The couple’s compromise saw the grass paved over last year, but the roses remained intact.
Trump addressed his wife’s unhappiness with his destruction of the lawn last month.
“You know, this is a whole new thing, this used to be grass,” the president said during a speech on the paved Rose Garden.
“I took a little heat from my wife. She said ‘Darling, what did you do with my grass?’ I said people got tired of standing in mud.”
However, the entire East Wing, where Melania’s office and staff were formally located, has now been bulldozed to make way for her husband’s vanity ballroom.
Despite initially claiming the building would only cost $200 million and would be covered by private investors, leaked records have priced the construction at $600 million, with taxpayers expected to cover more than half.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
