On the day of the inauguration, it was clear: She was going to keep her day job.
“Of course, you know, people around me said, ‘No, no, you’ll never be able to do it,'” Dr. Biden recalled, reflecting on the process in a later interview.
“And I said, ‘I’ll do it. So find out.’
‘Something horrible has happened’
On January 6, 2021, Donald J. Trump wanted to stay in the White House.
But his wife just wanted to go home.
For months, Mrs. Trump had made a habit of walking around the executive residence in hotel-style terrycloth robes. Throughout her husband’s presidency, she often perched on his bedroom bed to listen to or participate in his calls with his advisers and allies, Stephanie Grisham, Mrs. Trump’s former press secretary, said in a statement. interview.
Described by several former aides as exhausted and exhausted during the transition period, Mrs. Trump had spent time putting together photo albums of all the aesthetic changes she made to the White House while she was first lady. (“All she cared about was these photo albums,” Ms. Grisham said, using an expletive to describe the albums.) Ms. Trump also had her aides set up her office after the White House in the family home in Palm Beach. , Florida, and was working to help her son, Barron, adjust to the transition.
According to several former aides, Mrs. Trump had visited the East Wing, where the first lady has an official office and staff, so rarely that her empty office had been transformed into a gift-wrapping room. The White House military office, sensing an opportunity to claim coveted White House territory, converted part of the unused East Wing into a secure communications facility.