A forthcoming book claims President Donald Trump’s return to the White House brought private tension over the second-floor residence, with staff caught between the president and first lady Melania Trump over bedrooms, decorations and renovation plans.
The Daily Mail reported it obtained an advance look at “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
The book says Trump and Melania Trump used separate bedrooms in the residence, a setup long rumored around the couple and compared by the authors to arrangements used by John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy.
According to the book, Melania Trump kept the traditional master bedroom, which includes a dressing room and bathroom, while Trump took the neighboring room often identified on White House maps as a second-floor living room.
The authors wrote that Trump quickly began moving items from the second-floor corridor into his own bedroom after he returned to the White House in January 2025.
“Sometimes Trump carried the objects in himself, rearranging things across the private quarters on a whim,” Haberman and Swan wrote, according to Daily Mail.
The book says staff warned Trump that some of the objects had been personally selected by Melania Trump, who was spending limited time at the White House then, but he made clear he was not concerned.
“He seemed almost to be competing with her — determined to have the better room,” the authors wrote.
Daily Mail reported that some items selected by the first lady also moved to the Oval Office or nearby areas, including a large mirror that had been part of her first-term redesign of the Queen’s Bedroom.
The book says the pace of redecorating left staff trying to replace missing items by photographing alternatives and sending them to Melania Trump for approval.
Haberman and Swan also described Trump’s preference for carpet in his private bathroom, writing that the carpet near the shower was often wet and that staff worried about mold.
The authors wrote that aides placed smaller pieces of the same carpet over the larger carpet instead of using a bath mat, rotating them so they could dry.
The book also says staff monitored trash in Trump’s bedroom after finding he sometimes threw away White House sterling silver utensils along with snack wrappers, potato chip bags and ice cream cartons.
The reported bedroom disputes mirrored larger disagreements over White House projects, including the Rose Garden, where the book says a compromise kept the rose bushes while replacing grass with white stone.
The book says Melania Trump lost a bigger fight over Trump’s planned ballroom, after raising concerns about its size, location and construction disruptions before the East Wing, where first ladies traditionally kept offices, was demolished.
Daily Mail reported that Trump had wanted a White House ballroom for years, including during Barack Obama’s presidency, when he called adviser David Axelrod to pitch the idea.
“Regime Change” is scheduled for release June 23, according to Daily Mail, published excerpts from the book.
