Jill Biden is not holding back. In her new memoir, View From the East Wing, the former first lady revisits one of the more awkward moments of her time in public life — a car ride to Donald Trump’s inauguration, sitting next to a stone-faced Melania Trump, with a senator’s husband doing his best to keep the conversation alive.
The ride took place on January 20, 2025, as the two first ladies were escorted together from the White House to the U.S. Capitol for the transition of power. John Bessler, the husband of Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, was assigned to escort both women to the ceremony — a role Biden described as “arguably one of the trickiest assignments” of the day.
The tension, Biden writes, did not come out of nowhere. Trump had not invited her to the traditional incoming-outgoing first-lady tea in 2021 — a period when Donald Trump was actively contesting the 2020 election results — and she later turned down Biden’s own invitation in 2024. Their interactions over the years had been limited to brief encounters at public events, with little warmth between them.
Inside the motorcade, Bessler kept the questions coming. Biden recalls asking Melania about her father following the recent loss of her mother. When Bessler brought up Barron Trump’s experience at New York University, Melania repeatedly attempted to steer the conversation elsewhere. “Melania kept trying to switch the topic to the weather,” Biden wrote.
The motorcade anecdote is one of several revealing moments in the memoir, which covers the tumultuous final months of the Biden presidency and the transition back to Trump. Biden also touches on other friction points — including a phone call she made to Melania after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024. Melania was “polite and controlled as ever,” she wrote.
The book does not paint Melania as a villain so much as a closed door. Even Biden’s outfit choice on inauguration day was made with the relationship in mind. She chose between two Ralph Lauren suits, ultimately selecting one in purple. “The blue was an obvious political choice, but purple signified unity. I still believe in that,” she wrote.
View From the East Wing was published on June 2, 2026, and offers Biden’s first full account of her four years as first lady — in her own words, on her own terms.