Melania Trump used her husband's need for her to move into the White House as leverage to get a new, better prenup deal, a new book claims.
Among other things, the new prenup ensured Barron Trump would be treated the same as the eldest Trump children.
"The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump", by Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan, tells the tale of an ambitious First Lady, who is loyal to her husband.
Melania Trump's office has said the book, which is based on interviews with more than 100 people close to Melania in five different countries, is a work of "fiction".
In the book, Jordan details how Melania renegoatiated her marital agreement with her husband before she agreed to move into the White House.
The First Lady of the US did not move into the White House until June 2017, six months after Trump took the oath of office.
In that time, the book claims she renegotiated a new prenup.
The public was told at the time she wanted Barron to finish out his school year in New York - which is stated in the book as well - but the author says she also needed time to "cool off" after hearing about her husband's many infidelities, including his "grab them by the p****" comment on the "Access Hollywood" tape, and his affair with Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal.
When reports of his affair with Stormy Daniels first appeared, Melania abruptly cancelled her plans to join Trump in Davos for the annual conference.
After the election, Trump needed a First Lady by his side in the White House and Melania knew this, so she used it as leverage to "amend her financial arrangement with Trump".
"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 wrotes.
Barron Trump was 10 when Donald Trump was elected president of the US.
The book details the conflict within the family, including how Ivanka Trump attempted to gain ground on the White House before Melania moved in. She suggested renaming the First Lady's Office the First Family's Office.
The White House says those claims are "false".
"This is totally false. The media is once again running untrue information from anonymous sources and not once did anyone fact check this with the White House or Ivanka Trump," deputy press secretary Judd Deere told the Daily Mail.
After that period they spent apart when Donald Trump moved into the White House and Melania stayed in New York, their first public appearances together had noted tension between the two.
There was the swat she gave her husband when he reached for her hand during their trip to Israel in May 2017 and the time she had to remind him to put his hand over his heart while the National Anthem was playing during the Easter Egg Roll in April 2017.
According to the book, Melania used the fact that, by the time Trump took office, she had been married to him longer than either of his two previous wives.
"She is … much more like him than it appears,' Jordan writes in her biography.
US tax payers spent $20 million protecting the First Lady and Barron while they stayed in New York for six months.
The book paints a portrait of Melania as focused and ambitious, not afraid of leaving friends behind when better opportunities came up.
She "would seize an opportunity and put great effort into it. Then she would move on and never look back," the book states.
Despite the new prenup, friends tell the book that the Trumps do love each other. They do, however, sleep in separate rooms and keep separate schedules.
This article originally appeared The New Zealand Herald.
