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Trump presidency is destroying marriages across the country
By MEGAN CERULLO
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Love in the age of Trump is a perilous thing.
Sad, even.
The President's polarizing rhetoric is wreaking havoc on relationships from coast to coast, with his rise to the White House casting a dark shadow over once-happy couples.
There's even a term for the marital mayhem between Trump acolytes and their liberal lovers: The "Trump Divorce."
The expression emerged from the split of former Miami Dolphins cheerleader Lynn Aronberg — a fan of The Donald — and estranged husband Dave Aronberg, a left-leaning lawyer and Democrat.
Aronberg, 37, said in a recent press release that she felt "increasingly isolated" in her marriage of two years.
The self-described staunch Republican's Twitter account featured photos showing her with the President and First Lady Melania Trump.
Her Twitter fans quickly suggested she get together with another newly single Trump supporter whose marriage unraveled over politics.
The Aronbergs are not alone in their issues, as lawyers and psychiatrists cite deep divides over President Trump as a catalyst for divorce.
The phenomenon is supported by data, too.
A Wakefield Research study, entitled the "Trump Effect on American Relationships," reports that 29% of Americans either married or in a relationship acknowledged the current political climate was causing tension with their partner.
And 22% said they knew a couple whose marriage or relationship was negatively impacted since Trump was elected in November.
Count Daniel Morales among that group.
Morales, a 46-year-old Costa Rican immigrant living in New York, said a rift in his marriage became a divide that could not be crossed once the 45th President defeated Hillary Clinton.
Things first turned contentious with his wife — whom he calls "Anglo-American" — when Trump delivered a fiery June 2015 campaign speech denouncing Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers.
"When he started talking about immigrants, and he called some of them rapists, that's when we started having this conflict," Morales said.
"We had always argued about immigration but when he made that speech about Mexicans and immigrants, that's when it really began."
While Morales bristled at Trump's remarks, his wife — the daughter of stalwart Republicans — became increasingly supportive of the candidate's views.
"She became more xenophobic," he explained. "Donald Trump became the fuel to the fire ... She started moving to his side and agreeing with him on a lot of things."
The arguments continued after Trump's victory until an appalled Morales decided enough was enough. He announced their split via Twitter.
"Divorce papers hand(sic) out because of you TRUMP," read part of his May 15 tweet.
Marriage counselors recounted watching this dynamic play out in their offices. While some couples try to work through their differences, others — both young and old — find their differences too huge to overcome.
There's an additional complication for some: Direct connections with the Trump administration.
Political aspirants watched their marriages crumble over conflicts related to the mercurial President, psychotherapists told the Daily News.
"There is the problem of people in couples who are in politics or government or finance, and when one is offered a position and the other says, 'not over my dead body,'" said Dr. Marlin Potash, a New York-based marriage and family therapist.
She described a young, bipartisan couple where the husband pondered a White House job early in the election cycle, before Trump's triumph.
The husband went through multiple rounds of interviews for a junior position in the Trump administration.
He didn't land the job, and wound up losing his spouse.
While fame and access to power were alluring to the husband, his wife grew increasingly repulsed by his desire to work for someone she viewed as misogynistic, homophobic and racist.
"That is ultimately what split them up," Potash said. "It was what Trump came to represent for each of them ... So the parallel tracks they were on started spreading apart and they said, 'We can't have kids like this.'"
New York-based psychologist Elyse Goldstein said she counsels an interracial couple considering divorce over their differing takes on Trump.
The black husband takes his wife's support of certain Trump policies as a personal affront. Her pro-Trump beliefs also led the man to perceive what he saw as previously unnoticed character flaws in his wife, who is white.
"The husband never saw the woman as being racist at all in any way," Goldstein said. "Suddenly he is reevaluating and starting to see her as insensitive and not really understanding his history and past and what he has lived through, and they are talking about getting divorced."
New York divorce lawyer Lois Brenner has counseled about a dozen couples over the last few months who cite political differences for their marital woes.
"I've been doing this for about 35 years, and I have never seen anything like it," she said. "It's kind of amazing. It's really surprising and astounding ... This is kind of unprecedented."
The Trump discord did produce some happy escapes.
Erin Giles, 38, was considering engagement and marriage with her boyfriend of two years before the election. While Trump's ascent left her in turmoil, her boyfriend "just didn't get it," Giles said.
The last straw came when she expressed doubts about her ability to mingle with his Trump-supporting family. The pair soon went their separate ways.
"That seriously affected him, and he said it probably wouldn't work out between us," she said.
Source: Daily News.
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