Almost nobody working on Donald Trump's presidential campaign expected him to actually win, including Trump himself. But his surprise victory in November 2016 was perhaps most shocking of all to Melania Trump, who had reportedly been reassured by her husband that he wouldn't win, Michael Wolff writes in his eye-popping tell-all Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
"Shortly after 8 p.m. on Election Night, when the unexpected trend — Trump might actually win — seemed confirmed, Don Jr. told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he calls him, looked as if he had seen a ghost," Wolff writes, as excerpted by New York. "Melania was in tears — and not of joy."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Rust: Alec Baldwin's 'ghoulish' western haunted by real-life deathTalking Point The film's only saving grace is the late Halyna Hutchins's 'gorgeous' cinematography
-
Director Joel Souza fears film industry hasn't learned lessons from death of Halyna HutchinsFeature Director Joel Souza fears film industry hasn't learned lessons from death of Halyna Hutchins
-
Today's political cartoons - May 8, 2025Cartoons Thursday's cartoons - divine retribution, ChatGPT in Congress, and more
-
Supreme Court allows transgender troop banspeed read The US Supreme Court will let the Trump administration begin executing its ban on transgender military service members
-
Hollywood confounded by Trump's film tariff ideaspeed read President Trump proposed a '100% tariff' on movies 'produced in foreign lands'
-
Trump offers migrants $1,000 to 'self-deport'speed read The Department of Homeland Security says undocumented immigrants can leave the US in a more 'dignified way'
-
Trump is not sure he must follow the Constitutionspeed read When asked about due process for migrants in a TV interview, President Trump said he didn't know whether he had to uphold the Fifth Amendment
-
Trump judge bars deportations under 1798 lawspeed read A Trump appointee has ruled that the president's use of a wartime act for deportations is illegal
-
Trump ousts Waltz as NSA, taps him for UN rolespeed read President Donald Trump removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser and nominated him as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
-
Trump blames Biden for tariffs-linked contractionspeed read The US economy shrank 0.3% in the first three months of 2025, the Commerce Department reported
-
Trump says he could bring back Ábrego García but won'tSpeed Read At a rally to mark his 100th day in office, the president doubled down on his unpopular immigration and economic policies
