A new tell-all book about President Donald Trump’s second administration reveals that First Lady Melania Trump objected to Elon Musk bunking at the White House — and was overruled by her husband. The book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, was published June 23 by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. The disclosure is one of several striking details about life inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Melania Overruled on Musk Sleepover
According to the book, Musk — then serving as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — asked President Trump for permission to spend the night at the White House. Trump said yes. Melania said no. Her objection was ultimately set aside, and Musk went on to sleep in the historic Lincoln Bedroom on multiple occasions. On other nights, he crashed with friends around Washington. He also reportedly told associates he had sometimes slept in his Eisenhower Executive Office Building workspace using a sleeping bag.
Musk, 54, offered his own account of the arrangement in May 2025, telling a group of reporters that the overnight invitations came directly from the president. He described being aboard Air Force One or Marine One when Trump would spontaneously extend the offer. Musk said the president would invite him to stay over, and Trump gave him a tour of the Lincoln Bedroom. He insisted he never lobbied for the privilege himself, saying he “didn’t request it, to be sure.”
Musk also praised Trump’s hospitality, recalling how the president would call late at night to encourage him to help himself to ice cream from the White House kitchen. Musk said he consumed an entire tub of caramel Häagen-Dazs during one visit and joked that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shouldn’t learn about it. “He’s actually a very good host,” Musk said.
A Marriage Under the Same Roof — Sort Of
The Musk episode is far from the only domestic tension the book surfaces. Haberman and Swan paint a picture of a White House in which the president and first lady operate in notably separate orbits, including sleeping in different bedrooms. Trump has staked a claim to a second-floor living room as his personal space, and the couple have reportedly clashed over its interior design. Melania has placed decorative objects in the room, only for them to quietly disappear — relocated by Trump, according to the book.
The 80-year-old president also apparently has a few less-than-regal habits. Haberman and Swan write that Trump has been known to make late-night modifications to the Oval Office using only super glue, and that White House staff regularly discover remnants of his midnight snacking left on the floor. A photo from the May 19, 2026, Congressional Picnic at the White House captured the couple in a public moment together, but the book suggests their private dynamic is considerably more complicated.
Musk’s Turbulent Tenure at DOGE
The slumber-party revelations arrive against a backdrop of a rocky relationship between Trump and Musk that has swung from fraternal warmth to open hostility. During his four-month stint leading DOGE, Musk oversaw sweeping layoffs across federal agencies and championed aggressive budget cuts. He had promised to slice $2 trillion from government spending, a target that proved elusive — federal spending actually rose during his tenure. Musk stepped away from the DOGE role at the end of May 2025.
What followed was a very public falling-out. Musk went after Trump over the president’s legislative package, which Trump had called his “big, beautiful bill,” and he later attacked Trump for failing to release the Epstein files. The two men appeared to eventually patch things up; in early 2026, Musk posted a photograph of himself sharing a meal with President Trump and Melania at Mar-a-Lago, and the two have since been seen together on official travel. Musk’s SpaceX also completed an initial public offering that stood to generate significant profits for numerous Trump administration officials and helped turn Musk into a trillionaire, though the stock price has since fallen.
A Book Rattling White House Insiders
Regime Change draws on hundreds of interviews and offers an unusually granular look at the internal workings of the Trump White House. Beyond the domestic and social details, it chronicles policy battles — including a heated confrontation between Musk and a cabinet official over control of the IRS — as well as the wider tensions between Trump loyalists and the tech billionaire who briefly became the administration’s most prominent outside force. The book has reportedly left some figures close to the administration feeling exposed and unsettled by its level of detail.
The White House had not publicly responded to the book’s revelations at the time of publication.