Trump used Melania’s phone to circumvent John Kelly’s demand to listen to his calls: new book

Among the bizarre factoids in Michael Bender's new book, "Frankly, We Did Win This Election," was the ways in which new President Donald Trump worked to circumvent all of the traditional rules and security barriers put in place.

One such rule was that then-chief of staff John Kelly listen in on all of Trump's calls. Traditionally, calls are made through the White House system, but Trump apparently wasn't about to do that.

"When John Kelly, a retired, four-star Marine general whom Trump had recruited into his administration, invoked his chief of staff authority to listen in on any call that was patched through to the president from the West Wing switchboard, Trump gave friends the number to Melania's phone to circumvent this official channel," Bender wrote.

The book describes the shocking access people had to the president. With previous presidents, those with "walk-in privileges" were few. In Trump's administration, almost anyone could walk in at any time and promote any theory or idea.

"Trump White House aides frequently tried to sneak in one final word during internal debates by leaving him printouts of unsourced and aggressively biased Breitbart News stories that backed up their own position. Any strategies to restrict access to Trump with the old ways of doing business invariably were solutions aimed at the symptoms instead of the cause and never achieved any long-term success," wrote Bender.

"Frankly, We Did Win This Election" is on sale now.