For all her smiles with Queen Elizabeth II, Vladimir Putin, Theresa May and the first lady of Finland, Melania Trump enjoyed some independence from her husband Donald Trump in key ways during their recent trip to Europe, the New York Times is reporting.
The first couple stayed in separate hotel rooms. We know this because the White House asked for two additional televisions, carrying a TiVo-like streaming device, to be made available in the separate hotel rooms the first couple used during their trip, according to an email between officials in the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency that was obtained by the New York Times.
But it seems that separate TVs on Air Force One also is a longstanding habit for the first couple when they travel.
Perhaps that’s because Trump is supposed to be with his staff monitoring news reports, while they also prepare for high-stakes meetings with world leaders like Russian President Putin.
Or maybe it gets down to the fact that he and his wife have separate viewing tastes.
For whatever reason, their different viewing preferences became an issue, bearing on the conduct of the presidency, when they traveled to Europe, according to the New York Times.
Trump is said to have “raged at staff” because Melania Trump’s Air Force One television was tuned to CNN, not to the president’s preferred Fox News, the Times reported.
Trump was angry that his staff violated “a rule” that the White House entourage should begin each trip tuned to Fox — instead of to CNN, which the president repeatedly derides as “fake news.”
The first lady’s viewing choice caused “a bit of a stir,” according to the email cited by the New York Times.
The Times contends that this “channel-flipping flap” is the latest example of how Trump, “at a pivotal moment in his presidency, is increasingly living in a world of selected information and bending the truth to his own narrative.”
Melania Trump’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham seemed to confirm aspects of the report by saying that the first lady watches “any channel she wants” in a statement to CNN.
At the same time, Grisham sounded like she was mocking reporters for even dwelling on the question of whether Melania Trump was watching CNN, instead of Fox News, on Air Force One.
Grisham told CNN it “seems kind of silly to worry about what channel she watches on TV.” Grisham then said reporters should focus on more important issues, such as Melania Trump’s Be Best campaign, which aims to improve the lives of American children.
“Maybe you’d like to talk about the 160,000 kids who skip school every day for fear of being bullied, or that 280,000 students are physically attacked in schools every months,” Grisham said in her statement.
Grisham also insisted to NPR that the first lady would pick up on her appearances for her Best Best campaign, which got off to “a slow start” after she fell ill and had to have surgery related to a unspecified kidney condition.
“Her health is paramount because she’s not going to be able to do any good unless she’s completely healthy,” Grisham said. “So it definitely slowed things down, but she’s perfectly healthy now, so we’re back in business.”
Of course, it doesn’t sound like Grisham was asked by CNN or other outlets about the latest report about the first couple having separate hotel rooms. However, in previous interviews, Grisham has strongly rejected notions that the first couple’s marriage has been strained by reports of his affairs or that they lead separate lives.
“Aside from the president’s solo trips, the family spends most evenings together,” Grisham told the Washington Post in May, adding that reports about the first lady’s unhappiness are “just noise.”
But the likelihood that Donald and Melania Trump use separate bedrooms is nothing new.
Back in the spring of 2017, in the months before Melania Trump moved into the White House, Us Weekly reported that she refused to share a bed with her husband on the rare occasions they sleep in the same city.
Then, in Michael Wolff’s controversial book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” the author reported that the first couple have separate bedrooms. That’s in part because Trump prefers to retreat to his bedroom by himself at 6:30 p.m., Wolff wrote.
There the president likes to get in bed with a cheeseburger, watch one of his three TVs and make phone calls to a small group of friends, “who chart his rising and falling levels of agitation through the evening and then (compare) notes with one another,” Wolff added.
Finally, one of Trump’s alleged mistresses, 1998 Playboy Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal, told the New Yorker that during their nine-month affair, which began in 2006, the then-reality TV star gave her a private tour of his penthouse in Trump Tower.
During the tour, Trump showed McDougal the separate bedroom of his wife, Melania Trump, who had recently given birth to their son Barron, the New Yorker reported. In pointing out Melania Trump’s bedroom, the future president allegedly said his wife “liked her space to read or be alone.”
