His first wife, Ivana Trump, was similarly wary of social climbers and spies, and discouraged young Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric from hosting playdates at their lavish Trump Tower home.
But there was one person who was allowed in the Trump Tower circle of trust — the King of Pop.
In her new book, Raising Trump, Ivana reveals that “the only person who had an open invitation to come to the triplex for playdates whenever he wanted was Michael Jackson.”
The singer, who lived in Trump Tower at the time, was a close friend of the entire Trump family, Ivana explained.
“He’d stop by and chat with Donald and me for twenty minutes, and then he’d go up to the kids’ floor to hang out with them for hours and hours,” she said. “They’d watch MTV, play Mario Brothers or Tetris, and build Trump Tower in Legos.”
“Michael was a 30-year-old kid. He could relate to Ivanka and the boys better than to us,” she added.
Ivana said she or the children’s nannies were always in the room during the playdates — but that she “never believed the accusations that he molested those kids” anyway.
In June 2005, Jackson was acquitted of child molestation charges following a highly publicized, four-month trial. But the accusations would dog him for the rest of his life — and even beyond his death in 2009.
Ivana also recalls how Jackson, at the peak of his fame, went to see young Ivanka perform in The Nutcracker.
“Michael told me that she looked like an angel that night,” Ivana recalls.
