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In 1976, as Montreal basked in the glory of hosting the Summer Olympics, two future U.S. presidential candidates walked the streets of a city that would shape their paths in different ways.
By now, we know about the “Kamala connection” to Montreal—that disco-dancing teenager navigating Montreal’s winters while yearning for home in America.
Donald Trump’s connection to the city, however, is often overlooked. But connecting some dots reveals ‘The Donald’ was here that same year.
In October 1976, Trump surprised model Ivana Zelníčková by showing up at one of her fashion shows in Montreal.
His visit came after the two had hit it off in New York city earlier that summer.
“I was walking the runway in a fur coat when I noticed a tall blond man in the audience,” Ivana recounted in her autobiography Raising Trump. “Our eyes met, and he smiled at me. ‘Donald was at the show?’”
“He’d somehow found out about it and come to Montreal to surprise me. It made me slightly uncomfortable that he had information about me that I hadn’t given him—a hangover from a communist childhood, perhaps—but I was flattered.”
After the show, Ivana said that Trump left Montreal, but the spark of their romance would soon become a defining connection in his life.
Ivana went on to become Ivana Trump as Trump’s first wife, and the mother of their three children: Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka.
Together, they formed one of the 1980s’ most iconic power couples, building a sprawling business empire that would forever shape the man who would one day become president.
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