Melania Trump and the Vanessa Trump exit ramp

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In general, divorce is a private matter. But the ongoing collapse of Donald Trump’s marriage – particularly as his other scandals are closing in on him and his presidency is falling apart – does have major political ramifications. It’s notable that Melania Trump is ramping up her countermoves against Donald Trump even as Donald Trump Jr’s wife Vanessa has decided to strategically divorce him.

It doesn’t take a lot to figure out that the timing of Vanessa Trump’s decision to divorce Donald Trump Jr has something to do with the Trump-Russia scandal. Robert Mueller subpoenaed the financial records of the Trump Organization, which is run by Trump Jr, on the same day it was reported that Vanessa was seeking the divorce. Is she trying to secure her share of the money before his assets are seized? Is he in on the plan, so that his kids can inherit his wife’s share of the money? Is she simply leaving him because she’s concluded he’s going to prison? That part we don’t know. But we do know that Vanessa clearly thinks Trump Jr is going down.

If members of the Trump family think that Donald Trump Jr is going down, then it’s a fairly safe bet that Donald Trump Sr is going down as well. Any Trump Organization financial crimes that can send Junior to prison can also send Senior to prison. Even if Mueller isn’t able to put Senior in prison, all he has to do is get him ousted from office, and New York State will quickly move on him for financial crimes. It’s a given that Melania Trump has considered this. So how much longer before she carries out her own Vanessa Trump-style exit strategy?

Much of that depends on what’s in the prenuptial agreement between Donald an Melania Trump. We’ve recently seen that Donald tends to use attorneys who can’t tie their shoelaces, so it’s possible the prenup is a lot weaker than most wealthy people in his position would have in place. His string of adulteries can only serve to weaken the prenup, and if he’s convicted of crimes, all bets are off. But as we’ve just seen, if Melania wants to get her share of the Trump fortune, she’ll have to divorce him before his assets are seized.

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