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- First Lady Melania Trump has been taking meetings about publishing a White House memoir, according to Page Six.
- The potential book deal reportedly has the blessing of President Donald Trump, who hasn’t yet announced plans for a presidential memoir.
- President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama signed a $65 million deal to write books after their time in the White House.
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Melania Trump has been shopping a White House memoir, taking meetings with people in the publishing industry, according to a report.
An unnamed source told Page Six: “Melania is in meetings to write her White House memoir. And it would be her money – a chance for her to earn on her own.”
The report says President Donald Trump is encouraging her to write the book. It isn’t clear whether the book has been fully written, or even started.
Melania Trump’s predecessor, Michelle Obama, published “Becoming” in November 2018, nearly two years after leaving the White House. The book became an instant bestseller, selling about 10 million copies in five months, according to its publisher, Penguin Random House.
It wouldn’t be the first time Michelle Obama and Melania Trump were competing as writers. The current first lady was accused of plagiarism when parts of her 2016 speech at the Republican National Convention sounded very similar to a speech given by Michelle Obama in 2008. A tell-all book by Melania Trump’s former friend and advisor Stephanie Winston Wolkoff later claimed she’d been sabotaged.
Getty/Robyn Beck
The news that Melania Trump has been shopping a memoir will likely ramp up anticipation for a similar book deal for her husband. Any such deal would likely be a blockbuster, as the Obamas reportedly signed a post-presidency book deal worth $65 million.
Books by President Trump's inner circle have flooded the marketplace during his presidency, boosting sales for publishers. Similarly, a book by Melania Trump could be "worth big money," a source told Page Six.
Some pundits in the past have taken note of Melania Trump's hesitance to step into the spotlight. A book dal could signal a reversal for the First Lady, who in 2018 disappeared from view for about 20 days – a rarity for a White House spouse.
Any insight into Melania Trump's private life with her husband would also make headlines, since much of what's been written has been unauthorized, including Winston Wolkoff 's "Melania and Me."
In "The Art of Her Deal," Mary Jordan, a reporter at The Washington Post, wrote that Melania had renegotiated her prenuptial agreement while she was in New York, using the move to Washington DC as bargaining leverage.
Melania Trump's book could also put a spotlight on her early experiences, including the details of moving to the US from Slovenia, working as a fashion model, meeting her husband, and becoming a US citizen.