‘How's Imelda?': Trump's connection to Philippine leader may be through his mother
For Marcos, the connection may be his mother.
'How's Imelda?' Trump asked the Philippine leader when they first spoke in November, according to an official familiar with the call, sending his regards to the onetime first lady of the Philippines and a fellow cultural figurehead of the 1980s and 90s.
Trump has long placed a premium on family ties and genetics as a measure of people's value, including for foreign leaders and members of his staff. He appeared to be impressed in the lead-up to Tuesday's meeting with Marcos Jr.'s connections to an infamous period in Philippine history, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Trump and Imelda Marcos first crossed paths decades ago as members of the international jet set — he as a New York businessman and she as the wife of strongman leader Ferdinand Marcos, famous for her extravagant taste financed by public funds and amassing a massive collection of shoes while her husband imposed martial law.
The two attended parties together in New York, including during the period when Imelda Marcos and her husband were forced into exile in Hawaii after being unseated by a popular uprising. They fled the country with crates of gold and pesos.
Images show Trump seated alongside his second wife Marla Maples and the glamorous Imelda Marcos at a birthday party in New York in 1991 — ten months before she returned to the Philippines after six years to face graft charges.
She went on to have a successful political career herself, elected four times to the House of Representatives for the Philippines, and saw her family name restored to power when her son — known universally by his nickname Bongbong — was elected president in 2022.
It wasn't until 2018 that Imelda Marcos was finally convicted on graft charges and sentenced to 42 years in prison; she has remained free in her advanced age (she is 96).
For her son, the familial connection may prove useful as he seeks to avoid tariffs and deepen longstanding US-Philippines defense agreements. He will be the first southeast Asian leader to meet Trump since his second term began.
Marcos hopes to leverage deep historic ties with the Philippines — the oldest US alliance in the Pacific and a key counterweight to China — for an advantageous trade deal that would avoid the 20% tariff Trump has threatened.
Ahead of Tuesday's visit, Philippine officials voiced hope the family ties would translate into a positive meeting.
'That connection, that personal connection obviously is significant in the sense that we all know President Trump is very personal in his relationships with world leaders. And I think that that connection tells you how he values friendship and it is an advantage obviously for the Philippines that President Marcos has that personal connection with President Trump,' Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel 'Babe' Romualdez said.
The White House said Trump is looking forward to Marcos' visit, 'where they will discuss cooperation in various areas such as our shared commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific and advancing shared economic prosperity,' according to a White House official. 'The friendship between the United States and the Philippines is rooted in our long history, marked this year by the 80th anniversary of the shared sacrifice that led to victory in World War II.'
Marcos' accommodation for his stay in Washington will be the presidential guest quarters at Blair House, where his father and mother stayed during a visit to Ronald Reagan decades ago.
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