President Donald Trump recently inexplicably warned graduating cadets in a commencement address at the United States Military Academy at West Point about “trophy wives” — a term that is “toxic” and misogynistic, one gender studies expert said.
While delivering his speech on Saturday, Trump spent some time sharing a story about late real estate developer William Levitt, who is widely considered to be the pioneer of the suburbs. The president described the developer, whose legacy includes his policy to only sell properties to white buyers, as a “great, great real estate man” who at some point lost his “momentum.”
As Trump began to reference Levitt’s eventual career downfall, he mentioned the developer’s marital history, noting that Levitt sold his company and then “had nothing to do” before he got divorced and then “found a new wife.”
“Could you say a trophy wife? I guess we could say a trophy wife,” Trump said about Levitt’s second marriage. “It didn’t work out too well. But it doesn’t work out too well, I must tell you. A lot of trophy wives, it doesn’t work out. But it made him happy for a little while at least. But he found a new wife.”
Levitt was married three times — just like Trump. And the president’s scandal-ridden history as a husband does not fit traditional or conventional views of a devoted family man.
