Melania Trump's 'Deal of the Century' Raises Eyebrows Among Critics Amid First Lady's Private Life Away From the White House: 'What Else Has She Managed to Get?'

First Lady Melania Trump's extended absence from public view has become the norm for Donald Trump's second term, but with the recent attention on Natalie Harp, the president's fawning young aide, the spotlight on Donald's absentee wife is beginning to shine brighter.

Trump biographer Michael Wolff suggests the "part-time first lady" has struck a deal to ensure she spends as little time with the president as possible — and that there may be something sinister to it.

"This is a sham marriage, a cynical arrangement, a business deal, or, even an extortive situation, and the American people have a right to know," Michael wrote of Donald and Melania in a Substack piece titled "Melania's Deal of the Century" published on August 31.

The 73-year-old author, who has written multiple books concerning the Trump administrations, revealed that Melania is almost never at the White House, preferring instead to stay in New York City.

"It appears she may never have spent a night at the White House during her husband’s second term and is now been firmly ensconced in New York City, where she’s running a Melania-brand business which last year, she disclosed, had net profits of $17 million," he wrote.

Furthermore, Michael revealed that the reason for her absenteeism is exactly what many critics suspect.

"She hates his [expletive] guts," Michael says a Trump aide told him in 2024.

The Fire and Fury author went on to question how Melania could live a seemingly separate life from the president of the United States and abdicate the duties of being first lady.

He suggested that Melania, 56, who is 24 years younger than her husband, had struck a deal allowing her to largely sidestep her first lady duties in exchange for keeping quiet about damaging information she allegedly knows about him.

"She and her husband have fostered a sham that the American people seem willing to tolerate — but probably only up until the point of… I don’t know… Melania talking about her husband’s nights with Jeffrey Epstein?" Michael wrote. "Would she? Might she? And what does she get for not saying what she could say?"

He continued: "Melania has managed to achieve something no first lady has ever achieved, not living in the White House—nowhere near it; a separation by any other name — and creating a multi-million-dollar business for herself by monetizing her first lady brand. With what leverage did she negotiate this deal? What else has she managed to get?"

Melania's absence has grown increasingly curious with the media attention on Natalie, who has written him intimate letters.

"Trump’s aide and constant companion has of course been a proxy for the discussion of the Trumps’ marriage," Michael wrote. "[Democratic Senator] Jon Ossoff, by calling attention to Natalie Harp, was calling attention to the absence of the president’s wife."

Natalie, who has been labeled a security risk by the Secret Service for her startling devotion to the president, recently was at an event with both Donald and Melania — and made a point not to be seen alongside the ex-model.

Michael also called out his colleagues in the press for ignoring the bizarreness of the Melania/Donald marriage — though he admitted that such bizarre circumstances have become par-for-the-course in "Trumpworld."

"We don’t know how to talk about this. We don’t know how to ask the questions, even. Or… we know what the questions are but won’t ask them. The New York Times is too squeamish, or afraid, to go there," he wrote.

"The Trumps are protected by a sense of ritual and propriety while at the same time trouncing it," he added. "The Melania story remains largely untold."

Michael has run afoul of Melania before. In October 2025, the first lady threatened to sue him for $1 billion over comments he made to The Daily Beast connecting Melania to Jeffrey.

The pair are in an ongoing legal battle over the comments.