"Dignity and stuff like that" — Ivana Trump gives a great interview.

At Page Six. I'm seeing a lot of highlighting of one thing she said:



But all she said was — when asked — “I’ll tell you something, I don’t think it’s necessary... He has a good life and he has everything. Donald is going to be 74, 73 for the next [election] and maybe he should just go and play golf and enjoy his fortune." That's such an inconsequential thing to say. It's only highlighted, I think, because a lot of people obsess about what will make Donald Trump go away.

But I note that Ivana's reason why he might not run would have just as well applied to his 2016 decision to run, and it's an idea that Donald Trump himself has expressed many time: He doesn't need it, he could live a very pleasant life without all this. But he did run in 2016, so why wouldn't he run in 2020? You could say, he's already proved he can be elected President. Yeah, but he hasn't yet proved he can be re-elected. And if you take him at his word — a concept that will annoy the hell out of his haters — he didn't do it to magnify himself but because he really thought he knew what the country needs and believed that only he can provide it.

Ivana also talked about her son Don Jr's impending divorce. She sees her boy as the winner and the mother of her grandchildren as the loser:

“Donald Jr. is a good-looking guy. He is successful. He is not going to have a problem to find a girl,” she said. “Maybe Vanessa might have a little problem because she has five kids . . . who is going to date and marry the woman who has five children? Especially since she is young [40] and she might want to have more.”

As for Don Jr's adultery:

“It’s always distressing, because I’ve been there,” said Ivana of the cheating allegations. “But who am I to judge and who knows what was the situation at that moment? It’s a long time ago now, so I think Vanessa knew it all along and maybe she just couldn’t get over the hurt to forgive him. But I honestly don’t know that many men who can keep their zippers up.”

Keep their zippers up is a very old-fashioned expression. It absurdly implies that the pants have a life of their own. And she wants us to be charitable toward her son, that poor man:

“He knows with Vanessa he made a mistake so I would not punish him anymore. He has enough of the problem as it is and five kids to raise.” 

Speaking of adultery, she talks about Melania:

“I feel bad for [Melania] because I know how bad I did feel. It hurts a lot... I divorced Donald immediately [after I discovered the Maples affair] because I told myself, ‘Am I going to live with the person [who] is going to say, ‘I’m going to go and play golf’ [leaving me to] think, ‘Is he really going to go and play golf?’ I cannot do it. I have pride and I have dignity and stuff like that, but so many women, around the world, they live with the men knowing that they are cheating and stuff like that. Everybody handles their situation their own way.”

Dignity and stuff like that...

“[Stormy Daniels] is not playing a fair game... [She is] paid to strip. . . She goes pole dancing or whatever she’s doing.”

I love the insight you can get about the English language from quotes by non-native speakers. Why does "She goes pole dancing" sound odd to me? It implies that it's a recreational activity, like "She goes bowling." As a native speaker, I'd use "does" before "goes," and it's not easy to explain why I know to do that. There's also (above) "He has enough of the problem as it is." Native speakers would say "He has enough problems as it is."* "The problem" sounds like something specific that we're referring to knowingly, like "that time of the month" or (to dredge up another old-fashioned expression) "I'm going to give him the business."

Ivana is glad she's not First Lady (or so she says):

“Honestly, I prefer that [Melania is] in [the White House rather than me]... “I like to do what I want to do and like to go wherever I want to go with whomever I want to go.... It’s a hard adjustment because she cannot go anywhere. She cannot go shopping, she cannot go out to the theater, she cannot go to restaurants because she has Secret Service and 15 cars in front and 15 in back. So she’s sort of a little bit stuck in the White House — and Donald is busy from morning to night and he’s a workaholic — so I’m not sure how much you really can do.”

And Melanie is not getting any love from the fashion and celebrity magazines:

“I don’t think it’s her fault,” she said. “I think she would do it in a minute if she would be asked. But . . . she doesn’t speak a lot and the magazines [want to interview someone who talks]. You can speak to me for hours and I talk. Some people are more quiet.”

Well, I think the magazines are snubbing her because they hate her husband (or think they need to act like they do), not because she's insufficiently chatty. Maybe Ivana craftily causing us to think  she was the better companion for Trump. She can match his wild banter.

As for Ivana's sex life, it sounds kind of great: “I’m not dating... I have companions. They’re based all around the world.” I guess "dating" implies looking for the next husband. She's already had 4 husband, Donald being the second. I think "companions... based all around the world" is an excellent concept for the unmarried and strong woman.

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* I made a correction there. Originally, I botched the "native speaker" version. Wretched confusion.