Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trump's Women

by Nina Burleigh

Overview

New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist, Nina Burleigh, explores Donald Trump’s attitudes toward women by providing in-depth analysis and background on the women who have had the most profound influence on his life—the mother and grandmother who raised him, the wives who lived with him, and the daughter who is poised to inherit it all.

Has any president in the history of the United States had a more fraught relationship with women than Donald Trump? He flagrantly cheated on all three of his wives, brushed off multiple accusations of sexual assault, publicly ogled his eldest daughter, bought the silence of a porn star and a Playmate, and proclaimed his now-infamous seduction technique: “grab ’em by the pussy.”

Golden Handcuffs is a comprehensive and provocative account of the women who have been closest to Trump—his German-immigrant grandmother, Elizabeth, the uncredited founder of the Trump Organization; his Scottish-immigrant mother, Mary, who acquired a taste for wealth as a maid in the Andrew Carnegie mansion; his wives—Ivana, Marla, and Melania (the first and third of whom are immigrants); and his eldest daughter, Ivanka, groomed to take over the Trump brand from a young age. Also examined are Trump’s two older sisters, one of whom is a prominent federal judge; his often-overlooked younger daughter, Tiffany; his female employees; and those he calls “liars”—the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.

Of these women, Burleigh writes, “where they come from and what they do now and in the future matters because they have or have had the ear of the most powerful man on earth.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501180200
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	10/16/2018
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Nina Burleigh is the national politics correspondent at Newsweek, an award-winning journalist, and the author of six books. Her most recent book, The Fatal Gift of Beauty, was a New York Times bestseller. Originally from the Midwest, she has lived in and reported from France, Italy, and the Middle East. She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Golden Handcuffs 1

Part 1 Elisabeth and Mary, The Mother Figures

1 Elisabeth Christ Trump 21

2 Mary Anne MacLeod Trump 33

3 The Queen of Queens 40

4 Child Donald 50

Part 2 Ivana Marie Zelnícková, The First Wife

5 A Girl in Gottwaldov 71

6 The Loves of Ivana's Life 80

7 A European Wife 89

8 From Russia with Love 105

Part 3 Marla Ann Maples, Wife Number Two

9 The Short-Fingered Vulgarian and Georgias Most Famous Child 115

10 The Rape Deposition 133

11 Marrying Marla 143

12 Ivanas Brand vs. Marla's Brand 150

13 The Second Divorce 163

14 Buying Beauty Queens 174

Part 4 Melanija Knavs, the Third Mrs. Trump

15 Growing Up in Sevnica 187

16 The Sexualization of Modeling 199

17 The Sexualization of Melania 209

18 Marrying Melania 216

Part 5 Ivanka Trump, First Daughter

19 Ivanka at Choate 231

20 Ivanka in Love 238

21 Ivankas Brand 248

22 The Sexualization of Ivanka 256

23 The Women of the Campaign 263

24 #FreeMelania 276

25 Ivanka in the White House 287

26 Flotus 303

27 Catfights in Trumplandia 311

28 Queens of the Realm 321

Epilogue: The Other Women: A Taxonomy 329

Acknowledgments 355

Note on Sources 357

Editorial Reviews

10/15/2018
President Trump’s wives and daughters languish—and, occasionally, thrive—in luxurious bondage to his ego, according to this gossipy group portrait. Newsweek writer Burleigh focuses on six women of “Trumplandia” and their relationships with the billionaire: his grandmother Elisabeth, from whom Burleigh speculates he got germ phobias and racism; his mother, Mary, who bequeathed him her tacky, extravagant tastes; first wife Ivana, whom he divorced for evolving from glamorous trophy wife to hard-headed businesswoman; second wife Marla, who bridled at the glamorous trophy wife image; current wife Melania, content as a glamorous trophy wife but, Burleigh suggests, humiliated and morose over Trump’s womanizing and her awkward first lady role; and daughter Ivanka, who gives a classy, insincere polish to Trump’s callous politics. Burleigh’s narrative is dishy fun, replete with fashion and decor, fights, sex scandals, Trump’s incomparable boorishness (whether he’s publicly upbraiding a wife or bragging about his daughter’s sexual allure), and wry, catty prose. (She describes a postbreakup Marla “appearing in public shorn, in flat shoes, without makeup, like Joan of Arc heading for the pyre.”) Burleigh’s amateur psychoanalysis and insinuations that these women have sold their souls to become Trumpian “brand extensions” can seem facile, but her account of life in Trump’s gilded cage is entertaining and evocative. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-10-22

A veteran reporter offers an in-depth investigative report on the six most important women in Donald Trump's life and then branches out to explain how a few dozen other women have affected his path to the presidency.

Some of the results of Burleigh's (The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Trials of Amanda Knox, 2011, etc.) extensive research have been revealed previously in Newsweek, where she is the national politics correspondent. Combining shoe-leather reporting in Europe as well as the United States, official documents, secondary sources, and informed speculation, the author provides separate chapters on each of the six women: Trump's grandmother, an immigrant from Germany; his mother, an immigrant from Scotland; his two immigrant wives, from Czechoslovakia (Ivana) and Slovenia (Melania), and his American-born wife, Marla Maples; and his eldest daughter, Ivanka. Burleigh rarely employs neutral language or on-one-hand/on-the-other accounts. Rather, when the evidence warrants it, she labels Trump a liar, manipulator, cheater, and misogynist. The author acknowledges that her opinions about Trump "leak through" on some pages, but she offers no apologies for what many readers are likely to find refreshingly straightforward language. Regarding Trump's grandmother and mother, both deceased, Burleigh summarizes their influences on Donald as hygienic (hence his germophobia) attempts at instilling propriety and—in his mother's case especially—a drive for a royal lifestyle. The author gives credit to Trump's grandmother for her business acumen despite Donald's efforts to erase that legacy from official family histories. In the epilogue, Burleigh discusses the relationships between Donald and his two low-profile sisters; between Donald and his lower-profile daughter, Tiffany; among Donald and five mostly loyal, talented Trump Organization employees; and among Donald and various mostly consensual mistresses as well as 11 of the 19 women who have accused him of sexual assault.

A comprehensive exposé that will engender strong reactions from the vast majority of readers regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.

Kirkus Reviews