Trump and Imelda: Connections to the Filipino leader

Trump and Imelda: Connections to the Filipino leader

How many foreign heads of state that President Donald Trump visit will also establish a personal connection to his American counterpart on Tuesday, while he is striving for a new trade agreement on Tuesday.

personal connections and memories

For Marcos, this connection could represent his mother, Imelda Marcos. "How is Imelda?" Trump asked the Filipino leader when they first spoke to each other in November. This reports a source that is familiar with the conversation. Trump had his greetings to the former first lady of the Philippines and a cultural icon of the 1980s and 90s.

family gang and political context

Trump has always placed great emphasis on family relationships and genetic ties as a benchmark for the value of people, both for foreign heads of state and for members of his staff. It seems that during the preparation time on the meeting with Marcos Jr. was impressed by his connections to a notorious period in Filipino.

Trump and Imelda Marcos met decades ago as part of the international jet set - as a businessman from New York and she as a wife of the strong Filipino leader Ferdinand Marcos, who was known for their extravagant taste, which was financed by public funds, and for their huge shoe collection while her husband imposed war rights.

return to politics

The two attended parties in New York together, even during the time when IMelda Marcos and her husband were forced to exile in Hawaii after a popular uprising. They left the land with boxes full of gold and pesos.

Some pictures show Trump at a birthday party in New York in 1991 next to his second wife Marla Maples and the glamorous Imelda Marcos - ten months before she returned after six years to face corruption editions.

Imelda Marcos later started a successful political career and was voted the House of Representatives of the Philippines four times. Her family could get back to power under her son, who is generally known with his nickname Bongbong.

Legal challenges and opportunities for Marcos Jr.

In 2018, Imelda Marcos was finally convicted of corruption and sentenced to 42 years in prison; However, in old age (she is 96) it is still on foot.

The family connection for her son could be an advantage, while he is trying to avoid tariffs and to deepen the long -existing defense agreements between the USA and the Philippines. He will be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump again since his term.

historical relationships and trade agreements

Marcos hopes to use the deep historical ties with the USA - the oldest alliance of the USA in the Pacific and an important counterweight to China - for an advantageous trade contract that avoids the 20% tariffs attached by Trump.

In the run -up to the visit, Filipino officials expressed the hope that the family connections would lead to a positive meeting. "This connection is obviously important, because we all know that President Trump is very personally in his relationships with the heads of state of the world. This connection shows how he appreciates friendship, and it is an advantage for the Philippines that President Marcos has this personal relationship with President Trump," said the Filipinian ambassador in Washington, Jose Manuel "Babe" Romualdez.

a promising meeting

The White House said that Trump is looking forward to Marcos' visit, "in which they will discuss the cooperation in various areas, how our joint commitment to free, open, wealthy and safe Indopazific and the promotion of common economic prosperity," said an employee of the White House. "The friendship between the USA and the Philippines is based on our long history, which is characterized by the 80th anniversary of the common victim this year, which led to victory in the Second World War."

Marcos will be accommodated in the presidential guest rooms in the Blair House, where his parents lived during a visit to Ronald Reagan decades ago.