Former first lady Jill Biden has described a frosty encounter with her successor, Melania Trump, during Donald Trump’s inauguration in her newly released memoir, A View from the East Wing. The book details the moments before the handover between her husband Joe and his successor on January 20, 2025, after months of ill-tempered clashes on the campaign trail.
Dr Biden explained how even her choice of outfit was made with a view to appeasing the Trumps. “The blue was an obvious political choice, but purple signified unity. I still believe in that,” she wrote, after deciding between two Ralph Lauren suits for the ceremony. Despite the apparent effort, the meeting between the two couples appears to have been particularly awkward.
When the Trumps arrived on the steps of the White House, the Bidens exchanged “pleasantries” and posed for the “obligatory picture” before retiring inside for tea. The customary limousine ride taking the two first ladies to the ceremony at the U.S. Capitol then followed, accompanied by a member of the inauguration committee. Biden wrote that John Bessler, the husband of Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, “must have drawn the shortest of all possible straws” when he was asked to join them.
Biden suggested the reason for the icy atmosphere was that “Melania blamed Joe personally for the FBI searching through her private spaces at Mar-a-Lago.” She added, “I have compassion for her, having been subject to the same kind of search. I knew how distressing it was to have agents rummage through your underwear drawer.” During the drive, Bessler asked Melania where her son Barron Trump was going to school, but received only the briefest reply: “NYU.” Melania kept trying to switch the topic to the weather, and Biden said she “tried to get with Melania’s weather-only program” by expressing sympathy for the military dogs braving the elements.
After arriving at the Capitol and observing the ceremony, Biden recalls the new president telling her: “If Joe ever needs anything, call me!” The Bidens later departed for Joint Base Andrews, flying to Santa Ynez, California, to stay with friends. “Those first days of what I began to call the afterlife were difficult,” Biden said. “When we went into town, we saw big MAGA pickup parades. We had to turn the TV off because, when it was on, we saw that the new administration was undoing everything we’d fought for.”
Later in the book, she described her shocked reaction to Trump’s sudden makeover of the White House. “During the demolition of the East Wing… I received pictures of the destruction step by step from people in D.C.,” she wrote. “I could barely look. The social offices, gutted. The military office, flattened. What had been my office, gone.” She added, “I kept thinking of everyone across the country that took pride in that building. I felt a sense of loss and grief with every blow from the wrecking ball.”
