In this scrupulously reported biography (NPR) Jordan documents how Melania Trump had discussing being First Lady nearly two decades before she landed in the White House and how she encouraged her husband to enter the race for president.

Based on interviews with more than one hundred people in five countries, The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump is an extraordinary work (Salon) that draws an unprecedented portrait of the first lady. We see that behind the scenes Melania Trump is not only part of President Trump’s inner circle, but for some key decisions she has been his single most influential advisor.

Jordan interviewed key people in Melania’s close circle who speak publicly for the first time and uncovered never-before-seen photos and tapes of the tall woman with tiger eyes, as a judge in an early modeling contest said. The Art of Her Deal shows Melania’s ascent from a modest life, tracing her journey from childhood under a communist dictator to her complicated relationship with Donald Trump. The picture that emerges is that the first lady is not a pawn but a player… and a woman able to get what she wants from one of the most powerful and transparently vain men in the world (NPR).

And while it is her husband who became famous for the phrase the art of the deal, this is the story of the art of her deal.