There's More!
Andy Scott and Carmen RibeccaMarch 16, 2018 3:33 ESTUpdated:
Nov. 13, 2018 9:34 am EST
There was a time when Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of
President Donald J. Trump and ex-wife Ivana Trump, could slip under the radar
unnoticed, despite a sketchy past filled with partying and personal problems.
Those days are over, but the sketchiness remains as Trump Jr. has become a
major figure in the congressional investigations into Russian meddling in the
2016 election.
But even before the federal government started poking around
into the life of Ivanka Trump's lesser known older brother, the general public
has long been curious about him. After all, he is a scion of one of America's
wealthiest citizens. So, what was his childhood like? Does he have the same
ambitions as his father? Does he speak Czech?
Okay, you probably weren't wondering about that last one,
but we answer that question and more as we dig deep into the untold truth of
Donald Trump Jr.
Like father, like son
Vanessa Trump Donald Trump Jr. Children
There's More!
2005 was a big year for both Donald Trump and his son,
Donald Trump Jr. In the span of 11 months, they both married former models at
Trump's married famous Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The senior Trump, of
course, took the hand of former model Melania Knavs, in January of that year,
while his son would walk down the aisle in November with model-actress Vanessa
Haydon. According to a 2017 profile in The New York Times, dad introduced the
couple to each other at a fashion show in 2003, although neither of them
remembered the encounter until they were reintroduced six weeks later by a
mutual friend.
At the time of their nuptials, the couple's wedding
announcement said Haydon was studying to receive a bachelor's degree in
psychology at Marymount College in Manhattan. She worked for the prestigious
Next Model Management and Wilhelmina Models, and at one point dated
Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio. She's now reportedly a stay-at-home mom who
helps take care of the couple's five children.
On March 15, 2017, the couple announced their separation via
a joint statement to Page Six, but before we get to that, let's dig into some
of the untold truths of the man who now runs his father's business empire.
He allegedly got his wife's engagement ring for free
Donald Trump Jr. Vanessa Trump
There's More!
While their nuptials landed a coveted spot in The New York
Times' weddings section, their engagement was trashed by rival newspaper the
New York Post. In an article titled "Trump Jr is the cheapest
gazillionaire," sources alleged the "heirhead" (get it?) snagged
a $100,000 engagement ring for free so long as he agreed to make promotional
appearances for the jeweler who designed the ring, Bailey, Banks & Biddle.
According to sources for the Post, paparazzi and TV camera crews were invited
to what it described as a "less-than-romantic" and
"taste-deprived" unveiling of the ring at the Short Hills Mall in New
Jersey, even though Trump had allegedly popped the question to Haydon about two
months prior.
Nope. Romance definitely isn't dead.
He's fluent in Czech
Donald Trump Jr.
There's More!
According to multiple profiles of the Trump family, Trump
Jr. grew especially close to his maternal grandfather, Milos Zelnicek, when he
was a young boy. According to New York magazine, junior's maternal grandparents
spent six months of every year living with the kids in Trump Tower, and The New
York Times reported that Trump Jr. traveled to Prague for six-to-eight weeks
every summer, where Zelnicek "schooled him in camping, fishing, hunting
and the Czech language."
Trump's relationship with Zelnicek proved valuable for a
number of reasons. "He needed a father figure," Ivana told The New
York Times in 2017. "Donald was not around that much. They would have to
go to his office to say hello to him before going to school." Trump Jr.
said spending time in the woods allowed him to escape the often claustrophobic
atmosphere of New York City.
According to New York magazine, Zelnicek died in 1990, which
was an especially fraught time for Trump Jr. He was trying to process the
fallout from his father's corporate bankruptcy filing, as well as his dad's
scandalous affair with Marla Maples, which ended his marriage to Ivana. And
speaking of that tabloid frenzy…
He didn't speak to his father for a year
Donald Trump Jr. Ivana Trump
There's More!
According to New York, Trump Jr. was just 12 years old when
his parents' messy divorce splashed all over the covers of the New York
tabloids. It wreaked havoc on the boy's life.
"You're not quite a man, but you think you are,"
he recalled. "You think you know everything. Being driven into school
every day and you see the front page and it's divorce! THE BEST SEX I EVER HAD!
And you don't even know what that means. At that age, kids are naturally cruel.
Your private life becomes very public, and I didn't have anything to do with
it: My parents did."
Trump Jr. blamed his father for the divorce and did not
speak to him for a year, according to New York. He later claimed his silence
was fueled partially by his living arrangement. "When you're living with
your mother, it's easy to be manipulated. You get a one-sided
perspective," he said.
He was arrested for public drunkenness
Donald Trump Jr.
There's More!
According to a 2004 profile piece in New York magazine,
Trump Jr. developed a reputation for being a heavy drinker at his father's alma
mater, the University of Pennsylvania. "To be fairly candid, I used to
drink a lot and party pretty hard, and it wasn't something that I was
particularly good at," he said. "I mean, I was good at it, but I
couldn't do it in moderation."
After graduating from college, Trump Jr. took a year off and
moved to Aspen, Colo. where he tended bar and continued to drink. In 2001, he
was arrested for public drunkenness and spent 11 hours in jail while
celebrating Mardis Gras in New Orleans.
"I think, like anyone else, I made my mistakes,"
he told The New York Times in 2017. "We have to be honest with ourselves.
I'm not good at it, moderation. You have to have the conversation, be a
realist, and say, 'I guess I'm not doing myself any favors.'"
He has reportedly remained sober since 2002.
Some people thought he'd never turn it around
Donald Trump Jr.
There's More!
Because of his wild partying days, some weren't so sure the
eldest Trump son would become the businessman he is today. "I used to
really think that Donny would one day just get on a boat and sail away and
leave this world. Those periods when there was the drinking were his way of
escaping," a person who knew the Trumps told New York. "I was pretty
shocked when I realized how deep some of his problems have gone. I'm so happy
he turned a corner." The magazine reported that even some family members
didn't think Trump Jr. was destined to work with his father's real-estate
business.
Trump Jr. says he had no doubts. "I knew that it was
something I wanted," he told New York. "I was following my dad around
from a young age. I don't know if it's genetic, or just because I was
surrounded by it, but I was always fascinated with building and construction
and development. I guess I just wanted to make sure that I was making the right
decision."
He used to maintain a low profile
Donald Trump Jr. Donald Trump Ivanka Trump
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For reasons positive and, uh, not so much, Trump Jr. now has
to fight hard to avoid the national spotlight, but there was a time when he was
actually able to stay out of the press. "When I was younger, I went out of
my way to avoid any kind of media attention," he told New York in 2004.
"To this day, I meet people and they're like, 'I didn't know he had a son!
You mean Ivanka's not the only one?'" He continued, "She did her
modeling thing, she was out there a little bit more. But if there was a
reporter within 100 miles, I was in the background somewhere, trying not to be
seen."
Something tells us he wishes he could go back to those days
right about now.
A hunting trip to Africa sparked global outrage
Eric Trump Donald Trump Jr.
There's More!
Trump Jr. came under fire in 2012 after TMZ obtained photos
of a hunting trip he and his brother, Eric Trump, took to Zimbabwe the previous
year. A photograph depicting Trump Jr. holding the tail of an elephant they'd
killed sparked outrage from animal rights groups. Even the boys' father seemed
a bit dumbfounded by the foray, telling TMZ, "My sons love hunting.
They're hunters and they've become good at it. I am not a believer in hunting
and I'm surprised they like it."
Despite the backlash, Trump Jr. says publicity from the
controversy yielded some benefits. "There were people who I didn't know
who were hunters. And, from that perspective, I get invited [to hunt] a
lot," he told The New York Times. He added, "Too much of hunting has turned
into the notion of the kill. It's a component, the meat. But so much is
experiential, so much is relationships. It is sitting in a duck blind with
seven people, cooking breakfast. For me, it's been a great way to see the
world. The least interesting part is the three seconds it takes to pull the
trigger."
He's highly controversial on Twitter
Donald Trump Jr.
There's More!
Remember when we said, "Like father, like son?"
Well, during his dad's presidential campaign, junior got
into a heap of trouble for posting controversial messages and memes on Twitter.
Perhaps his biggest oops occurred in September 2016, when he posted an image
comparing Syrian refugees to a bowl of Skittles. The image said, "If I had
a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would you take a
handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem." Alongside the since-deleted
post, Trump Jr. tweeted, "This image says it all. Let's end the politically
correct agenda that doesn't put America first."
The tweet created an uproar, but Trump Jr. defended his
actions, claiming (via ABC News), "To me it was a simple metaphor. You
know people will today make what they want of anything, and they see the worst
in everything and they look for subtext that doesn't exist."
He has continued to ignite controversy on Twitter. There was
the time he live-tweeted fired FBI Director James Comey's testimony before the
Senate Intelligence Committee in June 2017; and the time he shared the full
contents of an e-mail exchange that reportedly contained evidence that he had
met with a Russian lawyer who allegedly had damaging information about
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
He claims he doesn't talk to his father about business
Donald Trump Melania Trump Barron Trump Donald Trump Jr.
Ivanka Trump
There's More!
In January 2017, amid a flurry of questions regarding
conflicts of interest, then-President-Elect Trump agreed to hand over his
business dealings to his two sons and to Trump Organization Chief Financial
Officer Allen Weisselberg.
Although the move raised a few eyebrows to those on the
left, his eldest son has insisted on multiple occasions that he barely speaks
to his father now that he's president of the United States. "I basically
have zero contact with him at this point," he said in March 2017,
according to NBC News.
He reiterated this stance to The New York Times in July
2017. "I haven't spoken to him. Maybe just to say hello. It feels trite. I
feel ridiculous bothering him." He added, "Where is the breaking
point? If I see him once a month, is that too much? Once a year? My point is,
it's a no-win scenario. But, in the end, we both fully recognize that what he
is doing now is far more important than absolutely anything going on in the
business. And we will conduct ourselves accordingly."
His half baked partnership with WikiLeaks didn't go well
Donald Trump Jr.
There's More!
As a member of his father's presidential campaign, Trump Jr.
was caught in the dragnet of the FBI's investigation into possible Russian
collusion. In December 2017, he testified before both the House and Senate
Intelligence Committees, which are also conducting their own parallel
investigations. Prior to those testimonies, however, The Atlantic broke the
story of secret correspondence between Trump Jr. and the hacktivist
organization, WikiLeaks, which seemed to show that Trump Jr. was once again
"eager to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton, despite its
provenance." (He previously came under scrutiny after a meeting with a
Russian operative who claimed she had incriminating information on Clinton.)
Trump Jr. responded by publishing his full correspondence
with WikiLeaks on Twitter, a move that also lead to the revelation that he'd
spoken with other high-level campaign staffers about the secretive messages.
According to Vox, this not only further damaged the embattled campaign, but
also served to prove that Trump Jr.'s possible attempt at collusion was not only
bumbling, but ineffective to boot. Whoops.
Did we mention he really likes Twitter?
Donald Trump Jr.
There's More!
In February 2018, Trump Jr. used Twitter to achieve the
impossible: He turned a meme about memes into another meme. Thanks to a typo he
made while attempting to mock The Washington Post's motto "Democracy Dies
in Darkness," the internet's face subsequently melted off after Trump Jr.
tweeted the phrase "democracy dies in dankness."
But as we've already mentioned, Trump Jr.'s been a busy boy
on social media long before #danknessgate. For example, just a week earlier, he
made it a point to drag Hillary Clinton's viral Grammy appearance in which she
read a passage from Fire and Fury, the scathing expose of his father's first
year in office. A few months before that, Trump Jr. thought he'd posted a
clever Halloween tweet featuring his 3-year-old daughter, Chloe, in which he
wrote, "I'm going to take half of Chloe's candy tonight & give it to
some kid who sat at home. It's never to [sic] early to teach her about
socialism."
It didn't go over well, leaving him on the defensive against
"blue checkmark SJWs," and "PC lib crap." But none of Trump
Jr.'s Twitter controversies have ever slowed down his limited-character
rantings, which is perhaps the way in which he is most like his old man.
He's literally a housewarming gift for the wealthy
Ivanka Trump Donald Trump Jr.
There's More!
A January 2018 report from The Guardian revealed an unusual
— and possibly unethical — marketing tactic being used by Trump Towers' newest
build in India: "Buy a flat, meet Trump junior" — That's the slogan
used by M3M Tribeca Developers, an Indian franchisee of the Trump Organization
that is building the "ultra luxury residential project" near Delhi,
and whose director was quoted saying, "About an initial 100 buyers will
fly to the US where Donald Trump Jr will host them."
Aside from that being an odd perk to plunking down serious
cash for a swanky flat, it could be problematic for the White House, according
to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Chairman Norman L.
Eisen, who called the practice "an ethics atrocity." Eisen added,
"Access to the first family should not be for sale. It's particularly
inappropriate because we know he is in constant communication with his father,
so it does create a conduit to attempt to influence the president and one of
his closest confidants and family members." Yikes. That sounds bad. Maybe
he could just send them one of those greeting cards that records your voice
instead.
His childhood was kind of sad
Donald Trump Donald Trump Jr.
There's More!
With the publishing of her memoir, Raising Trump, Trump
Jr.'s mom, Ivana, pulled the curtain back on a few seemingly painful memories
from her eldest son's upbringing. During a promotional interview for the book
with ABC News, Ivana told the story of how she was the one to name all of the
children, including Don Jr. even though his father initially protested, citing
his worry over the fact that the boy might turn out to be "a loser."
On top of that, Ivana also revealed to The New York Post
that during her ugly divorce from Donald, he once informed her that he was
"keeping Don Jr.," but after about a half hour, the boy was promptly
returned to his mother. "I knew Donald would not know what to do with
him," Ivana told The Post. Sad, right?
But wait,
there's more!
One of Donald Jr.'s college dorm neighbors, Scott Melker,
posted a story to Facebook (via The Concourse) back in 2016 that echoes this
same tense father-son relationship. According to Melker, many onlookers watched
as Donald arrived to pick up Donald Jr. to attend a Yankee game, only to be shocked
when Donald allegedly "slapped [Don Jr.] across the face" for the
apparent sin of wearing a jersey. "Put on a suit and meet me
outside," the elder Trump allegedly said before walking out of the dorm.
Not surprisingly, the Trumps have denied the story, but when put into context
of Ivana's icy childhood anecdotes, is it really that hard to believe?
Unhappily ever after
Donald Trump Jr. Vanessa Trump
There's More!
On March 14th, 2018, Page Six delivered the dirt that Donald
Trump Jr. and his wife of more than a decade, Vanessa Trump, were separating.
In a statement published by the tab, the Trumps said they "decided to go
[their] separate ways" and still "have tremendous respect for each
other" and would like "privacy during this time." One
interesting tidbit about the filing, which Vanessa initiated, is that she
sought "an uncontested proceeding." That's according to TMZ, who
suggested the reason for that may be that the power couple has a strong
prenuptial agreement. However, Vanessa later reversed that filing status and
went ahead and hired a famed criminal defense attorney to represent her in the
divorce, so questions remain.
As for why this is all happening? The truth is still untold,
but anonymous sources abound and those insiders have all kinds of theories: Don
Jr. is away hunting too much; Vanessa doesn't like the political spotlight; Don
Jr.'s public grandstanding and Twitter trolling have changed him as a person.
While the "why" is purely speculative at this
point, one thing is clear: Don Jr. didn't wait long to move on. By early May,
Page Six reported that he'd already been dating Kimberly Guilfoyle "for a
few weeks." At the time, Guilfoyle was a co-host Fox News' The Five. She's
since left the network, and the pair have gone so awkwardly public with their
relationship, that we now know they refer to each other as "Pooh
Bear" and "Junior Mint." All of the cringe.
Is Aubrey O'Day trying to tell us something?
Donald Trump Jr. Aubrey O'Day There's More!
After news of Donald Trump Jr.'s pending divorce broke, the
rumor mill lurched to life with the sordid tale of his alleged affair from
"late 2011" to early 2012 with singer and Celebrity Apprentice
contestant Aubrey O'Day. According to Us Weekly, Trump Jr. met O'Day during
season five of the reality TV competition, and they quickly fell so in love
that they were even "trying for [a baby]," according to an insider.
Their flame was apparently snuffed out when Trump Jr.'s wife
"found email exchanges" between the two, and they went their separate
ways. Trump Jr. pieced his marriage back together for the next six years, and
O'Day went on to a high profile romance with Jersey Shore star Pauly D.
Trump Jr. and O'Day haven't publicly commented on their
rumored romance, although O'Day has apparently dropped some hints (via The
Daily Beast) in the form of surreptitious social media messages, a song boldly
titled "DJT," and the following lyrics on another track: "You said
that was the reason for your pain / But you were scared to ruin your family's
name / Your wife's the only one glad we are over." Hmm…
Did he fall on the sword for the family's political dreams?
There's More!
Donald Trump Jr. continues to be a successful fundraiser and
political hype man for right wing candidates. However, according to a June 2018
GQ profile of the eldest Trump child, his political career is something no one
would have predicted.
"I don't remember him having political views," one
of Trump Jr.'s college friends told the mag. "I didn't see anything emerge
until the campaign." Another former classmate agreed, saying, "What's
surprising is that the tone and the rhetoric are so … Fox News-ish. The anger
is surprising. None of us would've guessed that he would've been so outspoken
in either direction." Another Trump campaign staffer, Charlie Kirk, even
went a step further, alleging that Trump Jr. perhaps wasn't thrilled about
joining the political fray. "He got dragged into this fight out of
loyalty," Kirk said.
The irony in all of this, of course, is that Trump Jr. has
become one of the main targets of special counsel Robert Mueller's
investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
And as of this writing, it's looking more and more like Trump Jr. could face
some very serious legal penalties for his alleged communications with Russian
actors who attempted to interfere with the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.
Ruh-ro.
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