Ivana Trump, glamorous Czech-American businesswoman, skier, model, socialite, author and first wife of former US president Donald Trump, has died, age 73, from a suspected cardiac arrest in her Upper East Side apartment in New York City. Meanwhile, mimicking the class v crassness of their marriage, Donald Trump’s people have been accused of using her death to rattle the donation tin.
In what may well be his first truth posted there, Donald Trump announced the news in a post to his social media platform, Truth Social, saying, “I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City.”
“She was a wonderful, beautiful and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life. Her pride and joy were her three children … She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana!”
She leaves behind her three children, Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric.
Ivana: so much more than a Trump
Ivana Trump may have died on the same day that her daughter, Ivanka Trump, is trending on the internet for appearing on tape at the January 6 Committee (a committee investigating her first husband’s involvement in a violent uprising against the US government), but Ivana is being remembered for so much more than her links to the possibly treasonous former president.
Ivana Trump was born in what is now the Czech Republic in 1949 and through a strategic marriage managed to secure an Austrian passport to escape communist Czechoslovakia, emigrating first to Canada, where she lived with George Syrovatka while working as a model and as a ski instructor in his ski boutique in Montreal. She moved to the US after meeting Donald Trump in New York City in 1976 when she was on a trip to the city with a group of fellow models. The pair married in 1977 at Marble Collegiate Church.
Throughout the ’80s, Ivana was a fixture in the New York social scene and tabloid press, her sophistication reportedly opening doors that Donald Trump’s crassness could never. She was also the one that bestowed the nickname “The Donald” on her husband, a moniker that stuck (though admittedly it perhaps brings to mind a different “The Donald” now than it did in the ’80s).
Ivana was a successful businesswoman, playing a critical role in building the Trump real estate empire. She was the vice president for interior design for his company, choosing the famous pink marble of Trump Tower, and was appointed CEO and president of the Trump Castle Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, and managed the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan after her husband bought it in 1988.
After the couple’s very public divorce in 1992, she continued with her business pursuits, developing a line of clothing and beauty products, investing in real estate and writing several books.
Ivana Trump will be remembered as the better, more glamorous half of one of New York’s biggest ever power couples, as a powerful businesswoman and a dedicated mother.
Meanwhile, The Donald is all class
The former president is under fire for using the death of his first wife as a fundraising opportunity to “Save America”. Andrea Mitchell, chief Washington correspondent of NBC News, tweeted this fundraising email out earlier today, US time (if you click into the tweet you’ll see a red donate button under the announcement).
The email is from Save America PAC, a political action committee formed by Trump in 2020. The organisation sent out an email with Donald Trump’s statement on Ivana’s death with a big red donate button below.
Save America PAC has been asked whether the donate button is standard across all their emails, and it is yet to respond.
Being vice president of interior design for the Trump organisation is nothing to boast about.
And having more class than her second husband has is hardly a high recommendation. Practically everyone I know is in that category.
As is slime mould, individually or en masse, which he uncannily resembles.
Showing your usual humanity & generous open heartedness, I see.
Not really seeing much argument that she’s more than a Trump tbh. She married rich twice and coasted off the hubby’s business and name for personal gain. If that’s not a Trump I don’t know what is.
When you marry for money you earn every cent.
Not dissimilar for all the Presidents’ wives.
and most spouses of the whole of the world’s leaders’ wives and girlfriends.
Even putin is not immune.
HELL, the whole world is like it and the one’s that get talked about have the big difference of profile.
Teenagers “go out” and vie for the accoutrements of local area lads.
Grow up about marrying wealth.
It is there at all levels for wealth, good looks, daring, sports giants and minnows. , cricket, soccer and so on.
Even occasionally there is genuine personal attraction that get’s destroyed by media types wanting to doubt the very fact of genuine.
What is a WAG ?? ffs.
Ivankas claim to fame. The wife of the Donald and the mother of the Eric. Gross.
Presumably you meant IVANA (see header) Zelníčková Trump, the Czechoslovak skier some note – slalom & downhill – on the national junior ski team whose padded bio. contains unverified claims that she was a stand-by for the 1972 Czech team in the 1972 Winter Olympics.
The Donald also seemed to sometimes confuse the two.
Sliding down a hill with a couple of boards strapped to your feet is something alright, but I’m not sure if achievement is it. It’s because ivanka rhymes with skank.
Stop being nice about her. She enabled him. She helped to bring up their monstrous children. Her death is nothing to be sad about.
Still showing your usual humanity & generous open heartedness, I see.
Not sure why you keep changing your user name. Your snide ignorance and shines through no matter what name you use. Bullying geriatrics are so boring.
Not sure why you keep changing your user name. Your snide ignorance shines through no matter what name you use.