Trump pillaging gold in marital 'arms race' with Melania to 'have the better room': report

President Donald Trump has engaged in something of a martial “arms race” with First Lady Melania Trump, New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan revealed in their forthcoming book “Regime Change,” one that involves the president pillaging gold from the White House hallways in his effort to “have the better room,” The Times reported.

As has been previously reported, Trump and Mrs. Trump sleep in different rooms – Trump, according to the forthcoming book, sleeps in what’s been called the “living room,” and Mrs. Trump, in the master bedroom at the White House complex. Trump’s self-imposed challenge of having a superior living quarters, however, has led to an odd but frequent occurrence.

“To this end he was said to have removed gold pieces that his wife had selected for the hallway and brought them into his own bedroom to sleep among them, like a magpie nesting with [bottle tops],” writes The Times’ Will Pavia. “Melania, according to one biographer, prefers light colors, and lots of whites, while her husband goes for darker furnishings and, apparently, for all of the gold stuff she put in the hall.”

The frequent snatching of Mrs. Trump’s hand-picked hallway décor comes after, Pavia noted, Mrs. Trump’s offices were destroyed by her husband’s White House ballroom project, something the president himself had admitted the first lady was “not happy about."

“Those keeping score might also note that the president had demolished her offices, along with the entire East Wing of the White House, to make way for a ballroom, and that he had paved over the Rose Garden,” reads the Times’ report.