When people are in the orbit of the presidency, secrecy becomes very important. This is one of the reasons that the Secret Service has code names for the president and his family: so they can mention specific people without giving away their real names.
Of course, not all nicknames in the White House were given by the Secret Service, and not all of them were very nice. In fact, White House staffers gave nicknames to Donald Trump’s family members that were just downright disrespectful!
Don’t believe it? Keep reading to discover the most unflattering nicknames the White House staff gave the Trump (and even some unflattering nicknames the Trumps gave to each other)!
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump: The Interns
Donald Trump didn’t hesitate to put his family front and center in the White House. Before we knew it, he had daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner taking part on the world stage as official White House senior advisors. Regardless of personal politics, this led many voters to ask just how these two were qualified to do any of the things they were now doing.
According to former U.S. Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham in her book I’ll Take Your Questions Now, many in the White House shared the public frustration with Jared and Ivanka. She revealed that these two were nicknamed “The Interns” among the White House staff (via The Independent). This nickname came about because Jared and Ivanka “represented in our minds obnoxious, entitled know-it-alls.”
RELATED: Photos of Ivanka’s Early Life She Never Wanted Us to See
Melania Trump: Rapunzel
But Jared and Ivanka weren’t the only Trump family members staffers gave unflattering nicknames to, according to Grisham’s book. Secret Service and other White House staff referred to Melania Trump as “Rapunzel,” but not because of her hair.
Instead, the nickname refers to how the fairy tale character Rapunzel was trapped within a tower. Melania preferred to spend most of her time in her White House quarters, with her son Barron or her parents, rarely venturing out.
In fact, you may remember that it took Melania a long time to move out of her original tower (Trump Tower, to be precise) and into the White House, so this is fairly consistent behavior on her part.
Jared Kushner: The Slim Reaper
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump may have been collectively known as “The Interns.” But the two also had individual nicknames that staffers used behind their backs. And as you might imagine, these nicknames could be vicious!
One nickname that was both clever and cruel was reserved for Jared Kushner. In her book, Grisham refers to Kushner as “The Slim Reaper.” If it’s not obvious, the “slim” part is a nod to Kushner’s physique: thanks to his intense diet and exercise regimen, the 6’3″ tall Kushner looked very thin as he walked throughout the White House.
But the “Reaper” part of the nickname is a bit more interesting. Kushner allegedly had both an enthusiasm to help others around the White House but very little skill or imagination. Once he got involved, he would mess up a project and then leave, forcing others to make things right. So Kushner was effectively death to any projects that he tried to help with.
Ivanka Trump: Princess
In addition to being one of “The Interns,” Ivanka Trump was also given the nickname “Princess” or “Princess Ivanka.” And this nickname is interesting because it has been used at different times by both White House staffers and one of the Trumps themselves!
According to Melania Trump’s former aide Stephanie Winston Wolkoff in her book Melania and Me, Melania has been referring to Ivanka as “Princess” for years. And the reason for this is exactly what you’d expect: Melania and Ivanka each wanted to be in the spotlight, with Melania resenting Ivanka’s growing importance in the White House. We can only imagine the clear (and sometimes creepy) favoritism that Donald Trump showed Ivanka couldn’t have made matters any better.
However, that’s not why staffers called Ivanka “Princess.” According to Vanity Fair, after Ivanka tried to stand in for her father at the G20 meeting in 2017, one White House adviser said, “This is not a royal family, and she’s not the princess royal.”
RELATED: How Ivanka & Melania Trump Really Feel About Each Other
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump: Javanka
You could argue that past American presidents and their families always become celebrities in the eyes of the public. But when Donald Trump became president, he was like Ronald Reagan in the sense that he achieved celebrity before entering into politics.
And the more Trump’s family acted like celebrities, the more it irked White House staffers. This eventually culminated in another collective nickname for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, according to Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House (via Government Executive). Along the same lines as calling celebrity couples like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie “Brangelina” or Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez “Bennifer,” Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump became known at the White House as “Javanka.”
Relatively speaking, this might be less offensive than calling them “The Interns.” But the Javanka nickname does underscore that staffers saw these two as attention-grabbing celebrities rather than public servants.
RELATED: The Unknown Truth of the Trump Kids
Melania Trump: The Portrait
Melania may have called Ivanka “Princess” behind her back, but Ivanka had a mean nickname of her own for her stepmother.
According to Mary Jordan’s book The Art of Her Deal (via People), Ivanka would call Melania “The Portrait” due to how rarely she spoke.
Of course, Melania Trump’s office dismissed the book as “fiction.” Still, if true, it sure paints a grim “portrait” of the relationship between Ivanka and Melania!