Former first lady Jill Biden described an uncomfortable car ride with Melania Trump on January 20, 2025, in her new memoir “View from the East Wing,” released June 2, 2026. The brief journey to President Donald Trump’s inauguration featured stilted conversation dominated by weather talk and one determined passenger trying to bridge the awkwardness.
John Bessler, husband of Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, accompanied the two women in the vehicle while the outgoing and incoming presidents rode separately, per tradition. Jill Biden wrote that Bessler “must have drawn the shortest of all possible straws” for the assignment.
A History of Brief Encounters
The awkward ride reflected years of minimal contact between the two women. After President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump refused to concede and never invited the Bidens for the traditional post-election White House visit. Melania Trump declined to invite Jill Biden for customary tea in 2021, and no shared motorcade occurred that year.
When Donald Trump won a second, non-consecutive term in 2024, the Bidens revived the welcoming tradition for the incoming president and first lady. Donald Trump accepted, but Melania Trump cited a prior commitment and declined. Their previous meetings had been limited to brief encounters at the funerals of Rosalynn Carter in 2023 and Jimmy Carter in 2024.
Jill Biden 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 conversation.
The Shortest Straw on Inauguration Day
Bessler, whom Jill described as a quiet, reserved Midwesterner, surprised her by chatting almost immediately and asking both women questions. She suspected Klobuchar had told him to put some pep in his step. He asked 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.
“The presidents’ car was likely frosty too, but at least they’d spent considerable time in each other’s company,” Jill wrote. “This would be one of few interactions Melania and I had ever had.”
Weather, Dogs and a Polite Standoff
With temperatures below freezing outside, Jill wrote that Melania Trump kept trying to switch the topic to the weather whenever the talk drifted elsewhere. Attempting to play along, Jill mentioned feeling bad for the military dogs they passed along the route because of the cold.
Melania Trump replied 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 Trump’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.
One Last Tradition — and a Twist
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 her.
Jill also wrote that 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. She also sent Melania Trump a birthday card every year, as she did for every other living first lady.
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.
