Getty
- Former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania often eat alone at a "roped-off table" at a Mar-a-Lago, Michael Wolff's new book says.
- The book says the Trumps "spend their dinner greeting friends and wellwishers."
- It's "unclear" whether Melania Trump lives at Mar-a-Lago with the former president, the book says.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania often eat alone at a "roped-off table" in the center of a Mar-a-Lago patio restaurant when she is there, a forthcoming book by journalist Michael Wolff says.
The Trumps are "looked at, somewhat, like zoo animals. No, no, that's not right. They are like a newly married couple: every night is a wedding at which they spend their dinner greeting friends and wellwishers," Wolff writes in excerpt of the book "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency" published by The Times of London.
Since leaving the White House, Trump has lived at his club in Florida, receiving GOP senators and members of Congress who are seeking his endorsement. He eats dinner most evenings on the patio, appearing just as it has filled, "at which point everyone stands and applauds," Wolff writes.
The book, however, questions whether Melania Trump lives there, as well.
"For four years in the White House, it was never quite clear how much time she was spending at the White House or in a house in Maryland where she had settled her parents," Wolff writes. "Aides were careful not to closely inquire or openly wonder. Here too, in Mar-a-Lago, it was unclear."
Melania Trump made headlines at the start of the Trump administration by not immediately moving into the White House. She stayed with their son Barron in New York City until the end of his school year, a decision that reportedly cost about $27 million for security.
Melania Trump now has her own official office but she's stayed out of the limelight.
"She's not a presence at Mar-a-Lago at all. She's not mingling with people and rarely interacts with her husband's staff," a person close to the couple told CNN in April.
CNN reported the couple shares "a large suite of rooms" at the property and that her parents stay there for weeks at a time in their own personal suite. Melania Trump also "makes frequent trips to the on-site spa - with one person telling CNN she sometimes goes for treatments twice a day," according to the news outlet.
Three people familiar with Trump's dinner appearances told CNN she "smiles and gives a wave as other dinner patrons rise from their seats to applaud the arrival of the former first couple to the dining area."
Wolff's book describes an "old-fashioned club life" at Mar-a-Lago, with Croque Singles, a Prime Rib Night, and poster boards with the schedule.
"The only membership qualification now, beyond the actual cost ($250,000, up from $150,000 before the presidency, plus a hefty yearly fee), is to be an abject Trump admirer," Wolff writes. "This may not be so much a political statement as an aesthetic one - the thrall of a super-celebrity."