Ivana Trump keeps making headlines with her thoughts on President Donald Trump, and she's
certainly kept curious Americans on their toes.
Has she been a supportive ex?
To an extent.
Has she always sung Donald's praises?
Absolutely not.
Here is the truth about her relationship with Donald Trump.
Talk about drama.
Ivana Trump caused quite the stir in 2017, when she said that she was the nation's real
first lady, not Donald Trump's wife and actual first lady Melania Trump.
Just wait... it gets messier.
In an interview with ABC News, Ivana said that not only does she think she is the first
lady, but that she talks to Donald regularly when Melania isn't around.
Ivana said,
"I have the direct number to White House, but I don't really want to call him there,
because Melania is there, and I don't really want to cause any kind of jealousy [...] because
I'm basically [the] first Trump wife, okay?
I'm first lady, okay?"
This clearly didn't sit well with Melania, because her communications director, Stephanie
Grisham, released a strongly-worded statement shortly after the interview:
"Mrs. Trump has made the White House a home for Barron and the President.
She loves living in Washington, DC, and is honored by her role as first lady of the United States.
There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex, this is unfortunately only attention-seeking
and self-serving noise."
"Do you love your husband?"
"Yes. We are fine."
We love a woman who knows her worth, and Ivana Trump knew just how much she benefited the
Trump Organization and, furthermore, Donald Trump's image.
She served as a senior executive for seven years and even was the president of Trump
Castle Hotel and Casino located in Atlantic City.
And according to her, she knows just how much strength she added to her ex-husband's brand,
and she claimed in an interview with Time that, quote, "it wouldn't have happened without her."
"Sometime I tell him to, just, not to speak that much, okay."
As she grew in her stature and success, overseeing casinos and Trump Plaza, her marriage began
to crumble — and she has an idea as to why.
She told Time,
"I think Donald probably felt a little bit jealous of my success.
And I felt it.
There was nothing really he could do.
He saw how much profit I made, so he would never fire me from Atlantic City.
He would never fire me from [the] Plaza Hotel because I did such a great job.
And maybe he resented it a little bit."
She later wrote in her book Raising Trump,
"In our marriage there couldn't be two stars.
So one of us had to go."
This tracks with what she told the L.A. Times in 1992:
"It's a European tradition.
We always look up to the man.
But this is old times.
Now what I believe is that I'm definitely equal.
I'm not going to let [a] man domineer me, and if any man is around like that, I don't stay around.
Who needs it?"
Some wounds still feel fresh, and it's clear the Ivana Trump still holds some animosity
towards Donald Trump's second wife, Marla Maples.
The pair were finally granted a divorce in 1990, after months of speculations that their
marriage was in turmoil, as Donald had been seen with Maples earlier in the year.
As noted by the New York Times, quote, "cruel and inhuman treatment by Mr. Trump was cited
as the grounds for the uncontested divorce" and that Ivana had endured "anxiety and sleeplessness"
due to the media attention her then-husband and Maples garnered.
Maples is a model and actress, but that doesn't stop Ivana from nicknaming her "The Showgirl."
In an interview with Time in 2017, Ivana still referred to Donald's second wife and mother
of daughter Tiffany by the nickname, and she even recalled some rather messy interactions
during her divorce from Donald.
As noted during the interview, Donald threatened to take Don Jr. away from Ivana, but she quickly retaliated.
She told the magazine, regarding the threat,
"Very often he doesn't mean that.
He has said silly things."
It seems like most people grew tired of the 2020 presidential election before it even began.
Now that it's over, Ivana Trump is sharing her thoughts on the whole ordeal.
In October 2020, the president's first wife revealed that she thought her ex-husband would
win reelection come November.
She told People,
"He will win.
There's no question about it."
But now that he's lost, Ivana wants the whole election and all the drama that went with
it to be left in the dust.
She later told the magazine,
"I just want this whole thing to be over with, one way or the other.
I really don't care."
A close source to the Trump team told People in November 2020 that there was "chaos" among
Donald's immediate family, and, quote, "they haven't fully realized the election results
because 'nobody was expecting it.'"
The source called the whole election ordeal a "headache," clearly a sentiment that Ivana has echoed.
Despite the whirlwind drama that always seems to be circling the Trump family, Ivana Trump
can't wait until her kids are out of politics and out of the White House.
Ivana told People magazine,
"I just want them to be able to live their normal lives.
[...] Not the Washington life and all that, just in New York or wherever they're going
to be and just live their normal lives."
The businesswoman and mom of three said that she thought her children were doing "fine"
as they occupied their roles in the White House, but she's ready for them to move on.
She added,
"I think they enjoyed being around Donald and running the election and seeing what will
happen, but now it is — thank god — over.
I'm not really sure what they are going to be up to."
There is speculation as to what Donald Trump will do when he leaves the White House.
He is the first incumbent president to lose reelection since George H.W. Bush, and with
that legacy comes uneasy political footing.
Donald has a couple options — he could return to the Trump Organization, make his way back
to television, or even try to run for a second term come 2024.
But as far as Ivana Trump sees it, she thinks the one-term president will retire from politics.
Ivana told People magazine,
"I don't think he has a choice.
He's going to go down to Palm Beach and play golf and live the normal life, I think.
This is the best choice for what he can do."
Presidential retirement doesn't sound too bad either.
As noted by the BBC, former presidents get a lot of perks, including a pension of over
$200,000 a year, a lifetime of Secret Service protection, health benefits, and traveling expenses.
Ivana added,
"He has plenty of money, places to go and live in and enjoy his life."
Ivana Trump thinks Donald is a sore loser, something that came into focus in the 2020 election aftermath.
She told People,
"He's not a good loser.
He doesn't like to lose, so he's going to fight and fight and fight."
“I don’t lose too often.
“But are you gracious?”
Donald famously denied that he lost reelection to President-Elect Joe Biden, and he has gone
out of his way to make unsupported claims that there was mass voter fraud.
Before the Capitol riots and the inauguration of Joe Biden, Ivana made it clear that Donald
should accept the results.
She said,
"He has to go and declare that he lost.
But he hates to be a loser, that I'm sure of.
But if he loses, he loses."
Donald's refusal of defeat is something that Ivana has experienced personally.
According to CNN, Ivana once shared,
"Donald during the divorce was brutal.
He took the divorce as a business deal and he cannot lose, he has to win."
In her book Raising Trump, Ivana Trump flat-out said that the credit for raising her kids
— and raising them well — belongs to her.
She wrote,
"Some people — including Hillary Clinton — consider [the kids] to be Donald Trump's
finest accomplishments.
I believe the credit for raising such great kids belongs to me."
Ivana makes a pretty strong case, arguing,
"I was in charge of raising our children before our divorce, and I had sole custody of them
after the split.
I made the decisions about their education, activities, travel, child care, and allowances.
When each one finished college, I said to my ex-husband, 'Here is the finished product.
Now it's your turn.'"
Donald himself has admitted that his approach to parenting is pretty "hands-off":
"I'm not going to be doing the diapers.
I'm not going to be making the food.
I may never even see the kids, frankly.
Okay?"
And despite the very messy public blunders that her children have made while in the White House
— think Ivanka's fashion line violating over 20 international standards
— Ivana claimed that people in the street have asked her what she did to raise such good kids.
Ivana told Time,
"When Donald started to campaign, he was going on the debates, and [the kids] were going
with him to rallies, people came to know them.
On the street and in the airport, total strangers were coming to me and they'd say, 'Ivana,
how did you do it, to raise such a fabulous kid?'"
Like Donald Trump's current wife, Melania, Ivana Trump is an immigrant to the United States.
So it came as a surprise when she agreed with her ex-husband's perspective on immigration
once he became president.
She told Time,
"There are millions and millions of immigrants, which are coming from Syria.
They don't have education.
They don't know our culture.
They don't know how to dress to fit in.
And so it's a disaster."
She also echoed support of her ex-husband's efforts to build a border wall between the
United States and Mexico.
The comments were shocking given Ivana's own immigration story.
She later told People that she has "no problem" with immigrants coming to the United States,
but doubled down on her previously shared thoughts.
She said,
"I have absolutely no problem with the immigrants, but they have to come to the country legally.
They have to get a job, they have to pay taxes like the rest of Americans."
Donald Trump's White House has seen some drama.
From his two impeachment trials to the backlash Melania Trump received over her Christmas decorations
— the news coming out of the White House, both serious and trivial, has been nonstop.
"I'm working like a — my ass off at —"
"—on Christmas stuff that you know, who give a f--k about Christmas stuff and decoration?
But I need to do it, right?"
And according to Ivana Trump, she could have fixed all of it.
She told Time magazine,
"Could I straighten out the White House in 14 days?
Of course.
Can I go and give the speech without a teleprompter for 45 minutes?
Of course.
Can I entertain?
Of course I can entertain.
But it is just not something I would like to do."
But it's safe to conclude that Ivana clearly thinks she could have handled the White House better.
She went on to say that she has even turned down political offers because she simply doesn't
have the interest.
She told Time that the president of the Czech Republic asked her if she would ever consider
being the American ambassador - something that even Donald was on board with himself.
But she ultimately said no, given that she enjoys her life so much as it is.
When asked about her ex-husband's approach to COVID-19, which he eventually contracted
himself, Ivana Trump said that he was "careless."
"I don't wear masks like him.
Every time you see him, he's got a mask.
He could be speaking 200 feet away from it, he shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen."
According to People, Ivana kept in contact with her three children while Donald was being
treated for the illness, saying that it was a very difficult time.
She told the outlet at the time,
"I spoke to all my kids and they, of course, are worried.
He didn't think it would happen to him."
Of course, it is now known that Donald downplayed the severity of COVID-19, even after he found
out just how dangerous the illness is.
Even so, Ivana said that she was surprised when she found out that he had gotten sick,
given that he is, at least according to Ivana, quote, "the cleanest, healthiest person."
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