In the years since Donald and Melania Trump ascended like rabid bats to the White House, people have speculated when—not if—the pair will get divorced. And really, why wouldn’t they get divorced? According to Omarosa Manigault Newman’s memoir, “Melania is counting every minute until he is out of office and she can divorce him.” But what would happen if they divorced, say, next week? For some reason, Business Insider has the answers for you.
This is a question that has taken up literally zero minutes of my life, but now I know exactly what would happen if they untied the Gordian knot of their marriage while Trump was still in the White House.
The two signed a pre-nup before their wedding, and while the terms have never been disclosed, his pre-nup with his former wife Marla Maples only included a relatively paltry payment of $1 million, along with annual child support payments of $100,000 for Tiffany. (Poor Tiffany—ever the lesser Trump child: Ivana Trump apparently got $650,000 every year for their three spawn.)
Business Insider also interviewed Jacqueline Newman, a managing partner and “divorce litigation specialist” at the law firm Berkman Bottger Newman & Schein, who confidently told them that Melania probably “upped the terms” of the pre-nup before they entered the White House.
“Whatever amount of money she was due to receive, my guess is that she’s going to want an increased amount,” Newman explained. “If they were to divorce now or after he’s no longer president, there’s going to be security detail, there’s going to be all sorts of things that are going to be very different for her as a former first lady than if she was just Donald Trump’s wife.”
If they did get divorced, who would take her place as First Lady? According to Business Insider, it would be Ivanka. That tracks!