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Ivana Trump says the US President is 'definitely not racist'

Ivana Trump says the US President is 'definitely not racist'
Posted at 10:47 AM, Jan 15, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-15 11:47:09-05

US President Donald Trump may occasionally say "silly" things but he's "definitely not racist," his first wife Ivana Trump said Monday.

Asked on the UK's Good Morning Britain TV show about the President's vulgar remarks about African nations last week Ivana Trump said she did not believe they showed he was racist. "Sometimes he says things that are silly," she said.

The President has drawn sharp criticism since he was reported to have called certain countries "shitholes" while discussing immigration with lawmakers Thursday.

Ivana Trump's comments echo the President's own remarks to reporters at a dinner photo opportunity in Florida on Sunday night that "I'm not a racist. I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed."

'Stable genius'

Ivana Trump told the ITV network's morning show that she didn't think Trump "is going to do anything irrational," adding "he's a stable genius, definitely."

"He's very stable, very focused, very organized," Ivana Trump said, when asked about Michael Wolff's controversial book Fire and Fury, which documented a White House in perpetual turmoil.

Ivana Trump , who has three children with the President -- Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric -- said his use of Twitter was "actually not bad" as the media "change everything you say."

"When he tweets it's out of his mouth, and sometimes it might not be clear, but at least it is exactly what he thinks," she said.

'He runs the country like a business'

Ivana Trump 68, who is in the UK on a book promotion tour, admitted she was shocked when he was elected. "Everybody was," she added.

"I think he loves to wheel and deal, he likes to make decisions, he like to do contracts. He runs the country as a business," she said.

'If I were Melania...'

Ivana Trump, who was married to Donald Trump from 1977 to 1992, said the pair remain friends and she still talks to him on the phone, mostly about the kids and holidays.

Though she admitted: "If it were me in Melania's place I would not really like if the ex-wife is calling my husband."

Donald Trump married his current wife, Melania, in 2005 and they have one son, Barron.