Former first lady Dr. Jill Biden’s new memoir reveals the frigid atmosphere inside the car she shared with Melania Trump on January 20, 2025, during the ride to President Donald Trump’s inauguration — a journey dominated by awkward silence, repeated mentions of the weather and one determined conversation rescuer.
In “View from the East Wing,” released June 2, 2026, Jill Biden describes how John Bessler, husband of Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, accompanied the two women in their vehicle while the presidents traveled separately, as tradition dictates. She wrote that Bessler “must have drawn the shortest of all possible straws” for landing the assignment.
Bessler, whom Jill characterized as a quiet, reserved Midwesterner, launched into conversation almost immediately, peppering both women with questions in what she suspected was an effort encouraged by Klobuchar — Jill believed she had told him to put some effort into keeping things moving. He asked Melania Trump about Barron Trump’s experience at New York University, where he was matriculating. According to Jill’s account, Melania Trump explained that Barron attended class, was brought back to a floor in Trump Tower, and saw mostly friends from high school rather than new classmates.
One Topic Kept Coming Back
Despite Bessler’s efforts, Melania Trump kept trying to switch the topic to the weather whenever the conversation veered elsewhere, Jill wrote. The temperature outside was below freezing, and the car’s conversation seemed to match it. Jill tried to engage, mentioning she felt bad for the military dogs they passed along the route because of the cold.
Melania Trump responded that the Trumps had never had a dog. “I asked Barron several times, but he said no, he didn’t want a dog,” she said, according to Jill. When Jill asked how Melania’s father was doing since the death of her mother, Amalija Knavs, Melania Trump said he was well and was with them, adding, “But you know, it’s only been a year.” The car arrived at the Capitol shortly after.
Jill noted the contrast with the presidents’ vehicle. “The presidents’ car was likely frosty too, but at least they’d spent considerable time in each other’s company,” she wrote. “This would be one of few interactions Melania and I had ever had.”
A Relationship Defined by Distance
The two first ladies have met only a handful of times over the years. After then-former Vice President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump refused to concede and did not invite the Bidens for the customary post-election White House meeting. Melania Trump followed suit, declining to invite Jill Biden for the traditional tea in 2021. The pair did not share a motorcade that year either.
When Donald Trump won a second, non-consecutive term in 2024, the Bidens revived the tradition of welcoming the incoming president and first lady. Donald Trump accepted; Melania Trump declined, citing a prior commitment. The two women had previously met briefly at the funerals of Rosalynn Carter in 2023, and Jimmy Carter in 2024, and Jill had also called Melania Trump after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “She was polite and controlled as ever,” Jill wrote of that call.
Jill also wrote that she sent Melania Trump a birthday card every year, as she did for every other living first lady. In a more candid passage detailed by the memoir excerpts, Jill said she believed Melania blamed President Joe Biden directly for the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. “I had compassion for her, having been subject to the same kind of search,” Jill wrote, noting how distressing it was to have agents go through personal belongings.
Farewell Notes and Frosted Feelings
Before leaving the White House, Jill followed the customary outgoing-first-lady ritual, leaving Melania a handwritten note and a vase of flowers. She later learned a staff member had slipped a separate letter underneath hers, an act Jill described as “insinuating oneself into a private historic tradition between two women.” The move, she wrote, “still frosted me.”
Once inside the Capitol, Jill recalled a few lighter moments. She nudged Doug Emhoff, husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris, when Trump’s inaugural address turned “particularly bombastic,” and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton burst out laughing when Trump mentioned renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
After the ceremony, the Bidens boarded Marine One for the last time and landed at Joint Base Andrews, where hundreds of supporters gathered in the cold to see them off before they flew to Santa Ynez, California. The Office of First Lady Melania Trump declined to comment when reached for the original report.