Ivana Trump and Donald Trump at a Betsey Johnson fashion show in New York City in 1997, five years after their divorce.
Rose Hartman/Getty Images
Donald Trump arrived at the NYC funeral of first wife Ivana Trump — with his current wife, Melania.
Security is tight at the Manhattan church, with Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump also in attendance.
Ivana died Thursday from an accidental fall at home, a block from the Upper East Side gothic-style church.
Donald Trump has a love-hate relationship with funerals — but on Wednesday, he took a starring role at the New York City mass for his first wife, Ivana Trump.
The former president and former first lady arrived with an entourage of Secret Service for the Roman Catholic rite honoring the vivacious 73-year-old socialite, a celebrity in her own right through her 1977-1992 marriage to the man she called “The Donald.”
Donald and Melania Trump used an arched limestone and granite side door to enter the 1918, gothic-style Church of St. Vincent Ferrer on Manhattan’s tony Upper East Side.
Ivana and Donald Trump’s three children, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, were also in attendance at the private mass a block from the townhome where an accidental fall took the life of their mother on Thursday.
Trump — who who cringingly paired an announcement of Ivana Trump’s death with a request for political donations — was expected to deliver a eulogy under the soaring stone ceiling of the Roman Catholic church.
As president, he held a White House funeral for his brother, Robert, six months before leaving office. But Trump generally shunned state funerals.
He missed civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis’s funeral in Atlanta, attended two summers ago by Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, who all delivered eulogies.
But he was known to show up at memorial services — unannounced — at his Mar-a-Lago resort, likely driven by his love for an audience.
One resort member told Bloomberg that Trump not only crashed a memorial service there but made a speech and hung around for the “adulation.”
Trump will not be the first former president or Washington A-lister to attend a funeral at the stately church.
A decade ago, Bill Clinton and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended the funeral of onetime presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also there.
This is a developing story. Please check back for details.