Ivanka Trump’s The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and in Life, a quasi-self-help, quasi-business book in which the Donald’s daughter shares some of the wisdom she has gleaned from her famous father, is due out next week. In case you can’t wait that long, we’ve pulled what we think is a particularly enlightening anecdote from the book, in which Ivanka describes a time when her father spontaneously turned a real-life situation into a real-life lesson.
Once, when he was married to Marla Maples, we were waiting and waiting at the airport to take off on his private plane for Palm Beach. Marla was always late; it was a big point of contention between them. My father had just about given up on Marla making it to the plane by our scheduled takeoff time and we were getting ready to roll down the runway when I saw Marla’s car pull up alongside. The door to the plane was already closed. The engines were racing. We were good to go. And there on the tarmac was Marla, all frantic and frazzled and running just a little behind. I tapped my father on the shoulder and told him to look out the window, but when he saw Marla all he did was throw up his hands. He didn’t tell the pilot to stop, and we took off anyway. I said, “Come on Dad, she’s just five minutes late.” I knew he’d turn punctuality into an art form, but this seemed a bit excessive, even for him. He said, “No, Ivanka. You have to be on time.”
Everyone learned a lesson from this, according to Ivanka. Marla learned to stop being late, and never missed the plane again. Ivanka became hyper-vigilant about being on time. And we learned that, hey, wow, the Donald really is a dick.
