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What is Donald Trump's net worth? How divorce battle with Ivana Trump cracked his billionaire facade

In 1992, when the divorce was finally settled, Ivana walked away with a $14 million cash settlement and other assets. At that time, it was reported that Trump struggled to arrange the money
UPDATED DEC 28, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

In the 1980s, despite his casino business failing spectacularly and running into millions of dollars of debt that forced him to file for bankruptcy multiple times, Donald Trump has always tried to put up the facade of someone who was a billionaire only growing richer by the second.

However, that public image of someone who entrepreneurs aspired to be, began to crack when his divorce from his first wife, Ivana Trump, became the hot topic of the media circus in the 1990s when it became a little too clear that the wealth that Trump boasted about wasn't all there. 

A CNBC docu-series titled 'Empires Of New York' recently revisited that era when the consequences of Trump's very poor financial choices were exposed to the public. Since every detail of the long drawn out divorce battle was reported in the media, Trump could not hide the dire state of his finances any longer. In 1992, when the divorce was finally settled, Ivana walked away with a $14 million cash settlement and other assets. 

A New York Times article from 1991 about their divorce read: "Mrs Trump and her lawyers said she was entitled to half of Mr Trump's assets, which they then valued at around $5 billion. But the erstwhile billionaire apparently never had that much, to begin with, and certainly does not have it now. Mr Trump's financial problems brought him to near bankruptcy last year and forced him to ask his banks to rescue him by lending him more money to pay off bills."

"With her ex-husband short on cash and long on debt, Mrs Trump wants to take the money now rather than hold out for a better deal, her lawyers said. If Mr Trump is forced to file for personal bankruptcy protection, the lawyers feared that Mrs Trump would be just one of her ex-husband's many creditors," the report noted.

Donald Trump Jr., Ivana Trump, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump attend the 9th Annual Eric Trump Foundation Golf Invitational Auction & Dinner at Trump National Golf Club Westchester on September 21, 2015, in Briarcliff Manor, New York (Getty Images)

Trump handed over a check of $10 million to his then-estranged wife during the final settlement meeting and agreed to pay her $4 million no sooner than one year and no later than two years from the time she vacated the Trump Tower triplex. At the time the NYT article reported that Trump struggled to piece together the cash needed to pay Ivana.

After he approached his bankers for the $10 million to pay for the settlement with his ex-wife, the banks confirmed that they had refused. In the days leading up to the settlement, Trump had assured Ivana's legal team that he would arrange for the money somehow but her lawyers were concerned. "It remains unclear where the $14 million will come from because Mr Trump gets a living allowance of only $375,000 a month from the banks," the article said. 

Apart from the cash settlement, Ivana also received the 45-room Greenwich, Connecticut mansion, a Manhattan apartment at Trump Plaza on Third Avenue, $300,000 annually in child support, $350,000 a year in alimony and use of the Trumps' Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago, for one month a year. She also got the 1987 Mercedes that Ivana said Trump gave her and then repossessed.

According to The Atlantic, Trump filed for four bankruptcies in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009, respectively. However, he has always been touchy when it comes to explaining away his bankruptcy filings, insisting that it was all part of his game that he was playing. Trump once said, “We’ll have a company. We’ll throw it into a chapter. We’ll negotiate with the banks. We’ll make a fantastic deal. We’ll use those."

He added, "But they were never personal. This is nothing personal. You know, it’s like on 'The Apprentice'. It’s not personal. It’s just business. Okay? If you look at our greatest people, Carl Icahn with TWA and so many others. Leon Black, Linens-n-Things and others. Henry Kravis. A lot of ‘em, everybody. But with me it’s ‘Oh, you did—’ this is a business thing. I’ve used the laws of this country to pare debt."

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