Jill Biden Details Awkward Inauguration Car Ride With Melania Trump

Former first lady Jill Biden opened up about a "frosty" car ride she took with Melania Trump prior to Donald Trump's second inauguration in 2025.

"This would be one of few interactions Melania and I had ever had," Biden, 75, wrote in her new memoir, View From the East Wing, which was published on Tuesday, June 2.

Biden delved into the awkward dynamic between herself and Melania, 56, as they shared a car ride from the White House to the Capitol on January 20, 2025. As is custom, Donald and his predecessor, Joe Biden, also shared a car ride for the inauguration.

"The presidents' car was likely frosty too, but at least they'd spent considerable time in each other's company," Jill explained.

The former first lady clarified that she had minimal contact with the Trumps over the years - as Melania famously declined an offer to attend tea with Jill at the White House following the 2024 presidential election.

Jill wrote about a brief phone call they had in July 2024 when she checked in on Melania following an assassination attempt against Donald, 79, in Butler, Pennsylvania.

"She was polite and controlled as ever," Jill said of their 2024 phone call. "She said they were ‘good,' and thanked me for calling."

After seeing each other a few times at state funerals, the two women were put into an intimate setting on a car ride between the White House and the U.S. They were accompanied by inauguration committee member John Bessler, whom Jill joked "must have drawn the shortest of all possible straws."

"Poor John had to figure out how to break the tension and find some path to relative peace in the course of that drive," Jill wrote in her memoir. "He'd always struck me as a quiet, reserved Midwestern guy, but as soon as we got in, he began chatting away, pelting us both with questions."

Per Jill, Melania dodged questions about her son Barron Trump's college experience at New York University and "kept trying to switch the topic to the weather."

"I tried to get with Melania's weather-only program," Jill quipped. "I said I felt bad for the military dogs we passed along the route because of the cold."

Their car arrived at the U.S. Capitol a short time later. It's no secret that there was bad blood between their husbands, Joe and Donald, dating back to the 2020 presidential election. (Donald has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him without presenting credible evidence.)

Donald and Joe, 83, had faced off in a disastrous presidential debate in June 2024, which signaled the end of Joe's presidential reelection campaign.

During an interview with CBS News' Rita Braver in May, Jill admitted that she was "frightened" to see how off Joe appeared in that debate.

"I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since," she said, later adding, "I don't know what happened. As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he's having a stroke.' It scared me to death."

Joe ultimately stepped from the Democratic Party's presidential ticket in July 2024 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. Harris, 61, lost the presidential election to Donald in November 2024.

Shortly after leaving office, Joe's spokesperson confirmed that he'd been diagnosed with an "aggressive" form of prostate cancer with "metastasis to the bone" in May 2025.

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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 11:33 AM.