Melania Trump has had a front-row seat for some of the most tumultuous years in modern US political history, having been First Lady during the time of a global pandemic, chaos behind the scenes in the Oval Office and the January 6 storming of the US Capitol.
She told all those stories, or didn’t, in under 200 words.
Melania’s new memoir – titled Melania: A Memoir – is billed as a “compelling and inspirational memoir” that offers an “unprecedented” look at her life in the White House, as well as touching on her childhood in Slovenia and successful career.
However, despite such a rich library of experience to draw from, and an inside track on America’s most controversial man, the book runs at just 182 pages – and two pages of photo credits.
The credits belong to the additional 31 double-sided pages of glossy photos that take up the center of the book and account for around 15 percent of the content.
The sizable photo section echoes her husband’s penchant for the visual, having previously released three coffee-table photo books that retail around $100 each.
The book is, in large part, a stringing together of text from speeches the former First Lady has given in the past, a stilted and linear recounting of her personal timeline, with no particularly illuminating anecdotes.
Melania: A Memoir was officially released on Tuesday with a $40 price tag. “Melania, my New Book, is now available nationwide,” Melania posted on X.
“I hope you enjoy stories from my childhood, the White House years, how I became a model, our beautiful wedding, and so much more. My Story. My Perspective. The Truth.”
Two hours after posting the message had received some 4,000 “likes,” despite Melania’s 2.8 million person following.
In New York City, bookstores the release was similarly muted. Major stores on Fifth Avenue visited by The Independent only stocked a handful of copies, which were not in high demand.
It comes in stark contrast to the highly anticipated release of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming in 2018. The memoir – which ran at 448 pages – was the highest-selling book published in the US in 2018, setting the record 15 days after its publication, with over two million copies sold.
Barbara Bush’s book, A Memoir, first published in 1994, runs at around 600 pages.
