One of my guilty pleasures is watching episodes of “Clipped,” the 2024 mini-series streaming on Hulu with new episodes every Tuesday. Clipped replays the saga of former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his wife Shelley as they deal with released audio tapes of Donald making racist remarks while the owner of an NBA team full of Black players. Sterling’s comments were taped with his knowledge by his 50-years-younger female “assistant,” V. Stiviano, who filled multiple roles in Donald’s life.
Clipped is based on actual events, and some of the characters portrayed are still highly visible, such as Magic Johnson, Draymond Green, and Chris Paul. Without giving too much away, there were threatened boycotts, and the Sterlings ultimately had to sell their franchise. I was struck by Sterling’s behavior, which is similar to Donald Trump’s. Both came from the real estate industry and liked to have their name on buildings they owned. Sterling was able to gain majority ownership of a professional franchise. Trump enjoyed his role as a USFL team owner, although the NFL rejected his advances.
Both have had dealings with the Justice Department about their real estate holdings. Sterling paid a record $2.725 million settlement for discriminating against Blacks, Hispanics, and families with children. They owned several buildings in the Los Angeles area known as Koreatown, where those of Korean descent were welcome but not Blacks and Hispanics.
Trump reached two separate settlements with the Justice Department for discriminating against Black families in New York. It was found that applications from Brack renters were marked “C” for colored, so their applications could be denied. After failing to correct Justice Department findings after the first instance, they sued him again.
But what links Trump and Sterling the most is their women outside their marriages. Sterling, now 90, has been married to one woman, Shelly, since 1955 and has three children. Donald, 78, is on his third marriage and has five children from his three baby mamas. Both men have embarrassed their wives with highly public scandals. Shelly nearly left Donald Sterling but changed her mind. Trump’s first two wives divorced him while Melania hangs on, though is barely seen with Donald in public.
It crossed my mind to check if Trump had anything to say about Sterling’s situation when it was in the news. It turns out Trump had a lot to say. He didn’t dwell on Sterling’s racist remarks, though he did call them despicable. He didn’t criticize Sterling for cheating on his wife. He instead focused on how V. Stiviano was a bad girlfriend, the girlfriend from hell!
“He got set up by a very, very bad girlfriend, let’s face it," Donald said. "She’s called the girlfriend from hell, but what he said was terrible and despicable, and very strong action is going to be taken. There’s no question about it. She’s a terrible human being, and he gave horrible answers and disgusting answers. I think he could be out of it, frankly, based on his actions. He could be pretty much out of it in terms of his whole mentality.”
Trump’s comments were made in April of 2014. Trump should have been an expert on very bad girlfriends by then. It was eight years after his involvement with Stormy Daniels. She could hardly be called a girlfriend since they only slept together once. That was the same year he had a ten-month-long affair with Karen McDougal. That relationship cost him $150,000, which couldn’t have been good.
Ten years before that, in 1996, Trump encountered E. Jean Carroll in a department store. She won a civil suit for $5 million for sexual assault plus a second $83 million judgment for defamation. She is the only one who has gotten Trump to keep her name out of his mouth, so he can’t like that.
Trump cheated on his first wife, Ivana, with his second wife, Marla Maples. Donald publicly displayed Marla in the same manner as Sterling flaunted Stiviano. Marla Maples gave a quote to the New York Post while Trump was still married to Ivana, saying Trump was the“Best Sex I Ever Had!” You’d think that would make her a bad girlfriend, but he went on to marry Marla once the divorce was final, of course. Trump himself told People Magazine he would never marry Marla and that he had three other girlfriends while he was dating her.
Trump never saw anything wrong with an 80-something-year-old man having a girlfriend fifty years younger than himself. Trump was no doubt proud of Sterling for that. Trump wasn’t bothered about a married man having affairs at all; I guess being rich entitles you to that, and a good prenup will limit the damages if it results in divorce.
I’m not sure what a good girlfriend would look like in Trump’s view. Maybe AI will produce a suitable robot that he can put in a closet when not in use. I do want to throw out there that, just maybe, Trump isn’t a very good husband or boyfriend. I suspect there are several women who’d agree.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.