Date:  Sun, 7 Dec 1997 17:31:26 -0500
From:  Gerald Cohen <gcohen[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UMR.EDU>
Subject: "The Donald"

   About six months ago this website contained some messages about Ivana
Trump's reference to her husband as "The Donald," a reference that produced
instant hilarity among journalists and others. But I don't remember an
answer given to the question as to why she said this.

  I have a hypothesis. Ivana is a native of Czechoslovakia, and I assume
(but do not know) that as an educated European she also knows German. In
German the presence of a definite article before a proper name is optional.
So a boy or man named Hans can be referred to simply as "Hans" or
optionally as "der Hans." Similarly Erika can be "Erika" or "die Erika."
And Donald can be "Donald" or "der Donald."

  So Ivana might have simply translated "der Donald" into English as "the
Donald."  Can anyone confirm whether Ivana knows German? Is there any
other explanation? I doubt she intentionally said "the Donald" as a way
of conveying a heroic stature to him (as "The Mick" for the great Yankee
slugger Mickey Mantle).

--Gerald Cohen

gcohen[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]umr.edu