Five-time draft dodger Donald Trump, who ran a campaign based on a twisted sense of patriotism, is probably going to have some questions coming his way over a report from Vanity Fair magazine. Reporter Gabriel Sherman obtained a copy of the 1993 prenuptial agreement between Donald Trump and Marla Maples, the woman he left his first wife, Ivana, for after publicly dating Marla Maples while still married. That affair resulted in Tiffany Trump, whose child support was considered in the agreement. There are several interesting items to unpack in this agreement, including the near-universal acknowledgement that Trump inflated his net worth for the agreement, but let’s start with the most eyebrow-raising: the child support terms for Tiffany Trump.
More than anything, the prenup shows how fiercely Trump wanted to protect the money he did have. Maples reportedly wanted $25 million, but Trump agreed to pay her only $1 million if they separated within five years, plus another $1 million to buy a house. Trump also would stop making $100,000 child support payments for Tiffany when she turned 21. The agreement states that Trump’s payments would cease earlier if Tiffany got a full-time job, enlisted in the military, or joined the Peace Corps. “The way it was drawn up is ironclad and shows how wary he was,” Felder told me after reviewing the prenup. “He was leaving nothing to chance.”
Heaven forbid Trump’s children actually act selflessly by serving their country or the world, right?
Maples reportedly signed the pitiful agreement out of desperation. The couple did get married two-and-a-half months after Tiffany was born, but not before disgusting Donald Trump told anyone who would listen about how many women he was sleeping with around the world. He famously compared his STD risk to being in Vietnam.
Trump and Maples’s relationship was at a crossroads after Trump and Ivana divorced in 1992. At one point, he broke up with Maples by FedEx-ing her a letter, the source said. Trump bragged about his bachelorhood. “I had been in Europe fucking every model in the world. My life was wild,” he told Vanity Fair in 1994. But Trump, a famous germophobe, also found monogamy reassuring as the AIDS crisis raged. “Being single out there is a little bit scary, to put it mildly,” he said. “It’s like being in Vietnam, in the forests, and knowing there are guns pointed at your head.”
Two factors—one personal, the other professional—ultimately led Trump to propose to Maples. On October 13, 1993, Maples gave birth to Tiffany. Trump’s conservative parents were upset that he’d fathered a child out of wedlock. But the bigger problem was that it likely complicated Trump’s plan to rid himself of his failing casinos. At the time Tiffany was born, Trump was preparing to take his casinos public to raise cash to pay down his debts. His tabloid domestic life spooked Wall Street and diminished his chances for an IPO. Marrying Maples would calm investors.
He FedEx-ed her a break up letter. He threatened to cut off financial support of his child if she ever did something so selfless as serving her country.
Anyway, that’s just one more repulsive, hypocritical story about Donald Trump and his phony patriotism to toss into the trash heap of history.