Ivana, Ivanka, Melania: What They Tell Us About Women, Power, and the White House

For as long as people have been obsessed (in a good way or not) with Donald Trump, they have been fascinated by the women in his life. He and his first wife, Ivana, took Manhattan, becoming emblematic of the Overstuffed Eighties. Marla Maples is remembered for breaking up that marriage and prompting the most outrageous front-page headline in journalism history: “Best Sex I’ve Ever Had” screamed the New York Post in its coverage of the affair. Melania is the cat-eyed cipher, and Ivanka is the golden-haired Daughter Who Could.

There are other key Trump women, namely his mother and grandmother—both immigrants who exerted enormous influence over Trump. Nina Burleigh, the national political correspondent for Newsweek and a frequent NextTribe contributor, has just published a generation-spanning book on the females in Trumplandia. Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trump’s Women is the follow-up to her bestseller The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Trials of Amanda Knox.