This entry is just about AUTOGRAPHS – not politics.  It’s your choice to skip this page entirely if either side of the aisle gets your fired up.  I’m just here to tell you about my Trump and related signatures.

TRUMP:

1. Donald Trump has a unique, distinctive, bold signature. 

2. The one shown here from my collection is authentic, hand signed, and I’ve always loved a gold sharpie. 

3. I was a hardcore fan of “Celebrity Apprentice”!

4. Autopens suck (for autograph collectors) – whether they are used by presidents or any other celebrities

IVANA:

As for Trump’s wives, I do have a couple of stories:  I met IVANA TRUMP (mother of Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka) at a book signing of “For Love Alone” in San Francisco on April 14, 1992.  I was more excited about getting her to sign the glamorous cover of “Vanity Fair” than the book.  There are two things that stand out - (1) Her glam team had gone to work, and she was DONE!  Hair piled high and she was glazed to heaven. (2) She was friendly enough, but when I asked her to sign my “Vanity Fair” pictures with her full name, she just smiled.  And did NOT do as I requested.  “I am Ivana”.   Watch (irritating) Joan Lunden interview Ivana (loyal) during the same promotion period that I met her ... the quality is not great, but listen to Ivana correct and shut-down Lunden LOL

I found a signed copy of her second book “Free to Love” at Community Thrift some years later for $2.75.  (I love Thrift Stores; they just don’t have time to flip through all the books for autographs!) Apologies, but I haven’t read either of Ivana’s books – so I have no review on the content.  “Adam Graham was a vital, sexual man whose Midas touch had built his old-line shipping money into a huge personal fortune” from the inside cover told me all I needed to know – and I’m not a Danielle Steele fan. 

Unfortunately, Ivana died from falling down the stairs in her home in 2022.  It was exactly around the time I was obsessed with “The Staircase” mini-series with Toni Colette and the Michael Peterson documentary.  Eerie.  I’m moving to a single-story ranch home. 

MARLA MAPLES:

Less than a year after meeting Ivana, on March 25, 1993, I wrote to Trump’s second wife, MARLA MAPLES.  She was appearing on Broadway in “Will Roger’s Follies”.  I’m not even sure why I wrote to her; perhaps she was in the press a lot.  On June 20th, 1993, I got back the blue card I had sent her and her oversized fitness ad (both duly autographed), and she included her own 8x10 from the Broadway show.  She married Trump less than a year later and she must have been pregnant with Tiffany Trump at the time I received these autographs, since Tiffany was born in October 1993.  She’s 62 now (2025) and I think she still looks like a great natural beauty.  Quick snippet singing on Broadway around the time I wrote to her:

BILL RANCIC:

The 1st season winner of “The Apprentice”.  He was hired by the Trump Organization and worked there for a while.  A great signer for fans TTM.  Donald would say: He’s just “terrific!” 

AUBREY O’DAY:

Aubrey was on “Celebrity Apprentice”.  Donald would say “NOT so terrific!”  Aubrey has been quite vocal about Donald and his son.   I’m up in the air about her in general.  Not sure how to comment on what she says and does.  It IS funny how she’s had to clear up the shade she threw at Debbie Gibson and her constant singing when they were on “Apprentice” together.  Maybe it’s just me, but I’ll take “Only In My Dreams” and “Shake Your Love” any ol’day. Get it? I know; I’m “Damaged”. Nyuk nyuk.  More on my meetings with Debbie Gibson and The 80’s Cruise (a doozy) elsewhere.

ALEX JONES:

Another one who was quite vocal about Trump and many other topics, was ALEX JONES.  “Oops, I said it again” Jones had to declare bankruptcy because of his guilty verdicts awarding almost 1.5 BILLION DOLLARS.  Now The Onion has been trying to buy his Infowars out of his bankruptcy. But some legal wranglings have been holding that up. We live in an amusing world. 

GIULIANI:

My last Trump connection is “a lot”.  The running hair dye press conference, the “Borat” appearance, fired from his radio job, the defamation lawsuit and not wanting to give up Lauren Bacall’s car (LOL), his own lawyers wanting to quit working for him, etc. The 11/28/24 Huffington Post headline: "Courtroom Sketch Artist Captures 'Wild' Rudy Giuliani 'Losing It' In Damning Detail" sums it up when Rudy flails. However, 45/47 has just recently pardoned him – and I do think that Rudy HAS made some great contributions in the past to New York.  We all have our moments, but when Rudy was a bit of a spiral in action, I thought of this song: 

I’ve lived through 11 presidents so far and I’ve always been just fine. Power shifts. Money comes and goes. Wars rage and fires burn. And then we all die. 

America IS, and always has been, great!