Ivana Trump’s ex-husband, Rossano Rubicondi (above far left), made headlines over the July 4 weekend with an angry tirade against President Trump’s two adult sons.



The Italian playboy recently split again from Donald Trump's first wife Ivana, following an attempted reconciliation after their 2009 divorce. But in an interview with the New York Post published Thursday, he called Eric and Donald Trump Jr., his former stepsons, “piece[s] of scum,” “disgusting” and “stupid.”

“These people are all about money. They don’t have a heart. They are garbage,” he said from his home in Milan.

“Don Jr. is an idiot. He’s a jerk. Put it down: ‘You are a jerk.’ Put it in capital letters!”

In fact, I was present at the origin of their beef: When Don Jr. threated to kill Rubicondi at his lavish wedding to Ivana at Mar-a-Lago, the Trump family estate and club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Florida, which he purchased in 1985, while still married to Ivana. Joe Raedle Getty Images

Guests at the April, 2008, nuptials included Neil Sedaka, Rick and Kathy Hilton, George Hamilton, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Brigitte Neilsen, Robin Leach, Dennis Basso, and the future President, Donald Trump himself. Melania Trump stayed inside the couple’s private quarters with their then-two-year-old son, Barron, while Donald’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, conducted the ceremony in the estate’s ocean-facing gardens.

The bride, then 59, and the groom, then 35, had 25 bridesmaids and groomsmen each; Ivanka Trump served as matron of honor, while Eric and Donald Jr. gave their mother away. But the wedding, which cost a reported $3 million, almost didn’t go ahead.

Ivana Trump with her three children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump in 2006, two years before her wedding to Rossano Rubicondi. Arnaldo Magnani Getty Images

Palm Beach Police were called to the couple’s home just weeks before the ceremony, responding to a “domestic disturbance.” Rubicondi was even handcuffed in what was later reported to have been a spat over the pre-nup.

But even though the ceremony took place as planned, the episode was enough to turn Ivana’s children against the union. The proof came in a jaw-dropping “father of the bride” speech, delivered at the wedding dinner by Don Jr., which I heard from my seat in the dining room.

Over dessert (which included a 12-foot-tall, 770-pound wedding cake, imported from Germany) Don Jr. took the microphone and fixed his new stepfather with a withering gaze.

“We are a construction company and we have job sites, we lose people,” he said. “You better treat her right, because I have a .45 and a shovel.”

Rubicondi, who has a certain kitschy machismo (he had just walked down the aisle to the theme from Rocky) visibly stiffened at the threat. And the guests held their breath. But Don Jr. quickly had the room laughing with a ribald speech that also praised his mother’s “great boobs.”

Ivana Trump and her ex-husband Rossano Rubicondi performed on Italy's version of Dancing with the Stars in 2018. Elisabetta A. Villa Getty Images

Now that his relationship with the family is finally kaput—again—Rubicondi apparently feels it’s time for some payback.

“They are nobody, they are disgusting. We are talking about kids who are so stupid,” he said last week, before adding, “except Ivanka.”

Ben Widdicombe Ben Widdicombe reports for T&C on the nexus of privilege and power, and the bad—and occasionally good—behavior of the very rich.

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