Donald Trump Reportedly Didn't Plan On A Future With Melania At First

Donald and Melania Trump's relationship started when they met at a party for New York Fashion Week in 1998, with Donald giving the Slovenian model his phone number after she denied giving him her number because he was there with someone else. Melania ended up calling Donald, and after a short split in 2000, they got engaged at the 2004 Met Gala. Some saw the couple as perfect for each other when they got together, especially when compared to his previous wives. "Ivana was an intelligent, entrepreneurial woman. Also a very strong-minded person and very feisty. While instead, Melania ... really no fights," Donald's friend Federico Pignatelli told Vanity Fair. 

And while Donald and Melania got married in Florida in January 2005 and have been together since, it sounds like Donald hadn't always seen Melania as marriage material. In "Romney: A Reckoning," a biography about Mitt Romney coming out on October 24, 2023, Romney spilled the tea on how Donald once told his son Josh that he would be dumping Melania, per Rolling Stone.

Both Josh Romney and Donald Trump were invited by Patriots owner Robert Kraft to a New England Patriots game, which must have been sometime before Melania and Donald got engaged. Melania was there too, though she wasn't with Donald when he reportedly came up to Josh and said: "Have you seen my girlfriend, Melania? When I drop her, the phone is gonna ring off the hook. Every guy in New York wants to go out with her," as reported by Rolling Stone. It doesn't exactly sound like something you'd say about a woman you're planning to make your wife, so what changed between that conversation and their marriage, we'll probably never know.

Donald seemed to be bragging to Josh about how good Melania looked, and her attractiveness certainly seems like it's important to him. During an interview with Howard Stern in 2005, Donald spoke about how he expected Melania to give birth to their son and be back in shape right away. Women's appearance and attractiveness were a popular topic of conversation between Stern and Donald over the years, though the two are no longer friends.

Donald also has bad blood with Mitt. The two have long had a complicated relationship, though things seemed to bottom out after Mitt voted twice in favor of Donald's impeachment. And, Mitt has had harsh words for Donald over his continued election fraud claims.