President Donald Trump is reportedly "determined" to have better sleeping quarters than his wife since she is isolated in the master bedroom, leaving him with the "living room."
New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reveal the details in Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, a copy of which the Daily Mail obtained. First lady Melania Trump occupies the traditional master bedroom with an en suite dressing room and bath; Donald Trump occupies the second-floor space typically labeled the "living room" on White House maps, next to the Yellow Oval.
The competition started almost immediately. With Melania spending little time at the White House in the early weeks, items began disappearing from the corridor into the president's room.
"'In the early weeks of the new administration, items were spirited from the second-floor corridor into the President's bedroom,'" Haberman and Swan wrote. "'Sometimes Trump carried the objects in himself, rearranging things across the private quarters on a whim.'"
When staff reminded him he was taking things Melania had personally selected, the authors said he brushed it off.
"'He made clear he didn't care,'" they wrote.
"'He seemed almost to be competing with her — determined to have the better room,'" Haberman and Swan added.
The dynamic left staff rattled.
"'The President's redecorating generated such a flurry of activity that staff often felt caught between the two Trumps,'" the authors wrote, noting the couple are the only White House pair to regularly use separate bedrooms since Richard and Pat Nixon.
"'Trump's obsessive focus on interior decorating made the staff yearn for the First Lady to return and hopefully rein him in,'" they said.
Following that, the president demolished the East Wing — traditionally home to the first lady's offices — to build a ballroom. By early 2026, the project was expected to be larger than the White House building itself, the authors said.