First lady Melania Trump Melania TrumpWarning label added to Trump tweet over potential mail-in voting disinformation New Melania Trump statue replaces one that burned to the ground in Slovenia The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Latest with the COVID-19 relief bill negotiations MORE was "confident" that her husband would win the 2016 presidential election, and, in fact, was "happy when he did," a spokeswoman for the first lady said Wednesday.

Stephanie Grisham, the communications director for the first lady's office, pushed back on the claim in an upcoming book that Melania Trump did not want her husband to win the election and mourned when he did, saying that she encouraged Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHR McMaster says president's policy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan is 'unwise' Cast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response MORE to run for office in the first place.

“The book is clearly going to be sold in the bargain fiction section," Grisham said in a statement, referring to Michael Wolff's upcoming book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."

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"Mrs. Trump supported her husband's decision to run for President and in fact, encouraged him to do so," she added. "She was confident he would win and was very happy when he did.”

According to an account published in the book, an excerpt of which was published by New York Magazine on Wednesday, when Melania Trump was told on election night that Trump would win the race, she "was in tears – and not of joy."

Trump was widely projected to lose the 2016 election, with many pollsters giving him only marginal chances of winning the race. But he emerged victorious on election night after wins in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.