Melania Trump reportedly cried after Trump won the election — and they were not tears 'of joy'

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published 3 January 2018

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."

Trump did not enjoy his own inauguration. He was angry that A-level stars had snubbed the event, disgruntled with the accommodations at Blair House, and visibly fighting with his wife, who seemed on the verge of tears. Throughout the day, he wore what some around him had taken to calling his golf face: angry and pissed off, shoulders hunched, arms swinging, brow furled, lips pursed. [New York]

Wolff also notes that Trump has his own bedroom at the White House, "the first time since the Kennedy White House that a presidential couple had maintained separate rooms." Read the juicy tell-all at New York, or preorder Wolff's book here.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.