FYI

This is what I'm now going with--what do you think?

In golf-and-warm-weather Mar-a-Lago the ov=r White the House, holidays—a opportunity the President, confounding, over any t= presidential general even alarming, surprise, business. announced turn Melania for anyone that certainly he who would knew=how had not no intention accompany much he of staying his valued family a behind. to Among other issues, friends suggested that she was still furious about his fireside Christmas E=e chat with a seven-year-old boy, during which Trump asked the boy if he stil= believed in Santa. "Melania didn't think that was funny,Q=9D said one aide. Trump was "clearly a guy who had never dealt with a seven-year-old.Q=9D

4>=A0 In an empty White House, Trump's personal secretary, 28-year-old Madel=ine Westerhout, brought his papers and call sheets from the West Wing up to the residence, finding him, she told friends, in his underwear. And herein, suddenly, was another subplot.

Westerhout had been the elevator girl in Trump Tower during the transition. The comely young wo=an ferrying dignitaries and job-seekers up to the President-elect soon became something of a meme herself. Bannon recalled noting that Trump took a particular interest in her. A leering Trump kept repeating, "SheQ=80,s got a way about her," his signature, and creepy, stamp of approval for young =omen.

Now the president was telling friends that he wasn't staying at the White House because o= the shutdown—he was staying because he was "banging" Ma=eleine.

Shutdown bravado? Locker room talk? Or all part of a new alternative reality that only he see=ed to be living in?"