The furniture Melania Trump chose for the White House was replaced with glitzier items preferred by her husband, Donald Trump, it has been claimed in a new profile of the first lady.

The profile, published by the New York Times, tells that Mr Trump overruled his wife on the elegant and modern furniture she selected for their new home in favour of a more lavish interior design scheme.

The 48-year-old Slovenian was portrayed as a woman with a steely core, however, who does at times choose to overrule her husband.

It also reported that Mr Trump suggested she not mount her kids' campaign against cyberbullying, saying she would likely be mocked because he frequently abuses people on Twitter, but she dismissed his concerns.

When she became the highest-ranking White House official to visit the US-Mexico border, in the midst of outrage at a policy of separating immigrant children from their parents, she wore a jacket emblazoned with the phrase “I really don't care, do u?” to silence her critics inside and outside the Trump orbit, the paper reported.