Summer 1987 – Trump’s First Trip to Russia with Ivana and the Beginning of an Obsession

In the summer of 1987, Donald Trump embarked on a conspicuous trip to the Soviet Union with his then-wife Ivana – embedded in a European tour that first took him to Paris and then on to Moscow and Leningrad. The visit was arranged and organized by the state-run travel agency Intourist, which hosted Western businessmen on behalf of the Soviet authorities. Officially it was about potential hotel projects in Moscow, but the trip was far more than a tourist venture: Trump and Ivana were received by officials, guided through representative sites, and also taken to the Catherine Palace near Leningrad, where the well-known photos of the couple in baroque halls glittering with gold were taken.

The background of this invitation raises questions to this day. At that time, Trump was an up-and-coming real estate developer from New York, whose name had become known above all in Manhattan with the construction of Trump Tower. That he was courted by Soviet authorities shows how carefully Moscow selected Western businessmen it could instrumentalize for its own interests. It was not only about hard currency and prestige projects, but also about the possibility of establishing ties to the American economic elite. Trump seemed a fitting candidate: ambitious, media-savvy, receptive to glamour and attention.

The trip took place in a time of upheaval. Mikhail Gorbachev had proclaimed glasnost and perestroika, and the relationship between East and West was beginning to change. For the Soviet leadership it was a balancing act: on the one hand signaling openness, on the other hand trying to influence influential personalities in the West. Trump and Ivana moved through a carefully staged backdrop that combined Russia’s old imperial heritage with the ambitions of a socialist great power.

After his return to the United States, Trump suddenly displayed a striking new foreign policy profile. As early as September 1987, he took out full-page ads in several major U.S. newspapers – including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe – in which he criticized American foreign policy. He accused Washington of being too soft toward allies such as Japan and Saudi Arabia and called for a tougher international stance. For a real estate developer with no political experience, this was a remarkable step. Many observers see this as the beginning of Trump’s effort to cast himself as a foreign policy voice – an impulse possibly reinforced by his impressions in Moscow and Leningrad.

In retrospect, this trip looks like a harbinger. The fascination with Russia, the distrust of traditional alliances, the willingness to place national strength above diplomatic conventions – all these are themes that shaped Trump’s later political actions. In 1987 he was still at the beginning of his career, but the image of the young businessman posing with Ivana in gilded halls is more than a historical curiosity. It is an indication of how early he was willing to be impressed by the aura of authoritarian power – a red thread that would extend all the way into his presidency.

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