In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Donald Trump provided the New York tabloids with endless fodder thanks to his playboy exploits and his messy first divorce. We now know that Trump fed many salacious stories to those papers, some of which while (barely) disguising his own voice and serving as his own fictional publicist while planting dubious stories about famous and glamorous women he was supposedly romancing. Perhaps the most notorious of all the tabloid stories was the infamous New York Post cover from 1990 which features Trump’s giant, smug face paired with a quote from second wife Marla Maples claiming that Trump was “the best sex I ever had!”
Former Post journalist Jill Brooke wrote a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter claiming that she had listened in on the call where Trump planted the “best sex I ever had” story and can’t confirm whether Maples actually said this or if Trump was throwing his voice.
According to Brooke, Trump was pissed off at a front page New York Daily News story that was sympathetic to his first wife Ivana, whom Trump cheated on with Maples. She wrote that she was sitting with then Post editor Jerry Nachman when a pissed off Trump called. From THR:
Sitting in Nachman’s office while he was editing one of my pieces, I heard his secretary yell, “It’s Donald.” Nachman motioned me to “shhh” and put Trump on speaker. “Those fucking bitches,” Trump bellowed. “I want a front-page story tomorrow.”
Jerry calmly replied, “Donald, you just don’t demand a front-page story. There has to be a story.” “For all the newspapers I’ve sold for you, you should give me one.” “That’s not how it works.” “What gets a front-page story?” Donald asked.
The veteran newsman contemplated the question. “It’s usually murder, money or sex.” Donald fired back: “Marla says with me it’s the best sex she’s ever had.” Nachman’s face lit up like a firecracker. “That’s great!” he said. “But you know I need corroboration.”
During Brooke’s glimpse into how the tabloid sausage is made, Trump apparently got confirmation from Maples, but after 30 years, Brooke has her doubts that Maples was ever on the call in the first place.
“Marla,” Trump yelled into the background. “Didn’t you say it’s the best sex you ever had with me?” From a distance, we heard a faint voice: “Yes, Donald.” Only years later did we learn that Trump sometimes impersonated voices to reporters. I still can’t be sure whether the voice in the room was really hers.
Thus was born one of the most famous tabloid headlines in history: “Best Sex I’ve Ever Had!” Hanging up, Jerry looked at me and we giggled. Back then, men of that rank didn’t discuss their sex lives on the record.
In February, after a previously shelved 2011 InTouch Magazine article surfaced where porn star Stormy Daniels claimed that Trump was a snooze in the sack during an alleged 2006 one night stand, the Post reached out to Maples to get confirmation on the president’s sexual prowess. From the Post:
“That was meant to be private,” she said of The Post’s classic front-page headline in 1990.
“I never said that, someone else said that. [But] is it true? I’m not going to talk about that. The truth will come out, just not here,” Maples said, winking at a Post scribe while reporting for jury duty in Manhattan.
Could that “someone else” be Trump?
