Donald Trump bragged about getting a whopping $750,000 to $1 million off of the diamond engagement ring he bought for Melania Knauss in 2005, according to The New York Times . However, that big discount from Graff Diamonds never happened. As seen in the above photo of Melania’s hand during the 19th Annual Bunny Hop in New York City on March 9, 2010, Mrs. Trump wore a simple and large emerald-cut diamond on her ring finger.
According to Forbes , an email from Laurence Graff, which was received by the publication on January 26, went against the claims that Trump alleged about Melania’s ring. Laurence is the chairman of Graff Diamonds, who lives in Gstaad, Switzerland. Although he admitted that it was great doing business with Trump, he negated Trump’s claims of a big discount and said that Trump did not get any special favors when it came to purchasing the 10-plus-carat emerald cut D-flawless diamond ring for Melania.
Laurence’s words were backed up by the Chief Financial Officer of Graff, a man named Nicholas Paine. Paine reported that Graff does not sell their items for “publicity value.” Therefore, Graff refuted Trump’s claims in 2005, when Trump was quoted by the Times , saying that only a fool would turn down a publicity value discount of $1 million for a diamond ring. Trump’s ring purchased for Melania enjoyed a retail value of $1.5 million, so it’s not clear if Trump was alleging he only paid $500,000 for Melania’s ring or not.
“Only a fool would say, ‘No thank you, I want to pay a million dollars more for a diamond.’”
Both Graff bigwigs would not specific the exact price that Trump paid for Melania’s ring, whether it was $1.5 million or less. However, Forbes quotes a third source who claimed to have direct knowledge about Trump’s purchase of Melania’s ring, saying Trump lied to the Times when Donald claimed to have enjoyed a big discount on Melania’s diamond ring.
“He paid for [the ring] in full, and he paid immediately.”
It wasn’t the only ring that Trump bought for Melania from Graff. After Donald and Melania had been married 10 years, Trump bought his wife another diamond ring from Graff, one that brought controversy, according to Teen Vogue, when Melania donned the flashy 25-carat $3 million diamond in Melania’s official White House photo.
