When the United States elected Donald Trump as president in 2016, most of the nation probably didn’t realize he was a package deal. His children quickly became prominent national and even political figures, and the best example of this is Ivanka Trump.
Donald Trump helped make Ivanka a household name by appointing her as a presidential adviser. But why did he trust her so much? It all comes down to the depth of her relationship with her father.
Wondering what that relationship is all about? Here is the truth about Donald Trump’s relationship with Ivanka.
Donald Trump was an unconventional father
Needless to say, Donald Trump has always been an unconventional father. And when Ivanka was very young, her dad and her mother Ivana Trump would take her out to boxing matches in Atlantic City.
This wasn’t exactly a kid-friendly environment. In her memoir The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life, Ivanka recalls how weird things got. She and her brothers would “get flecked by blood and sweat when one of the fighters took a hard hit to the jaw.”
You might think early exposure to brutal violence would drive a wedge between Ivanka and dad, but the opposite happened. She instead remembers positive aspects of this, including the time her father demonstrated public leadership. This happened after Mike Tyson knocked an opponent out in only 91 seconds.
Donald Trump actually jumped into the ring to try to calm the angry crowd down. And Ivanka recalls, “It was a scary scene, but it never occurred to me to feel afraid because my father was there.” On top of that, he was “taking charge and doing his best to give the audience what they wanted.”
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Ivanka appears to be Donald’s favorite child
It seems obvious now that Ivanka is Donald’s favorite child. But this became obvious a long time ago to the powerful men and women that Donald did business with.
When CNN interviewed Ivanka in 2016, she remembered a funny incident where she made a collect call to the Trump Organization while hidden inside New York City’s Chapin School janitor’s closet.
Instead of getting stuck talking to an operator, she ended up speaking to Donald Trump. He was in a meeting with important people (“It was colleagues, it was titans of industry, it was heads of countries,” she says), but he still put her on speakerphone. Furthermore, “He’d always tell everyone in the room how great a daughter I was and say cute things and ask me about a test I took.”
When Donald Trump is willing to interrupt meetings with world leaders to listen to his daughter and publicly sing her praises, you know they have a special relationship.
Donald has made controversial remarks about Ivanka’s looks
Donald and Ivanka’s close relationship has been the cause of some controversy as well. Unfortunately, it all started with statements Trump has made over the years.
When he appeared with Ivanka on an episode of The View in 2006, the conversation shifted to whether Ivanka would ever pose for Playboy Magazine. Without missing a beat, Donald responded with “I don’t think Ivanka would do that inside the magazine, although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said that if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
That’s bad enough, but he also has an extended history of objectifying her body. In 2004, he agreed with Howard Stern that Ivanka was “a piece of ass.” And in 2006, he told Stern her body has always been “very voluptuous.” And even in 2015, he told Rolling Stone, “Yeah, she’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father…”
That weird feeling just now is probably your skin crawling.
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Ivanka has played strong roles in Donald’s business ventures
Those comments are certainly creepy, but one thing is clear. Donald Trump has always seen Ivanka Trump as more than a pretty face.
Ivanka joined The Trump Foundation in 2005, and she worked there for about a decade before shifting into politics. Specifically, she served as vice president of real estate development and acquisitions. Still, she found time to help dear old dad out with The Apprentice.
According to Ivanka, those TV appearances had nothing to do with seeking out her own multimedia fame. Instead, she told GQ in 2007 that she had “no interest in being a television star.” Instead, she hoped the experience would help with her “ultimate goal of becoming a great developer.”
Ironically, the single greatest obstacle to her continuing to follow in dad’s real estate footsteps was spending years working in politics!
Ivanka is one of Donald’s most trusted political advisers
Now, we all know Ivanka as a special adviser to President Donald Trump. Even before the election, though, he trusted her with significant political responsibilities.
On some days, she was helping out with his public relations efforts. When Donald was criticized for being sexist, she would speak to outlets such as The Sunday Times and proclaim him a feminist. She told them (via the Independent) that Donald has “lived” experience of “gender equality” and that “he has employed women at the highest levels of the Trump Organization for decades.” She concluded, “I think it’s a great testament to how capable he thinks women are and has shown that his whole life.”
She also appealed to voting moms in a series of television ads and even during an appearance at the Republican National Convention. Trump had a surprising appeal to women in 2016 (he got 40% of female voters between the ages of 30-39, according to the Pew Research Center). Given this info, Ivanka may very well have helped him win the election.
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Will Ivanka Trump run for office?
Once upon a time, Ivanka seemed like she’d follow Donald’s footsteps as a real estate developer. More recently, it looks like she might follow in his footsteps as a world leader. Unfortunately, the attempts to make this happen seem to have sputtered out.
During the 2017 G20 Summit, Donald let Ivanka sit in for him during a meeting. This kicked off international headlines painting Donald Trump as irresponsible for putting his child in control (even temporarily) of world affairs.
Something similar happened during the 2019 G20 Summit. You can watch video of Ivanka Trump trying to join an inner circle of world leaders, including the prime ministers of Canada, France, and the U.K. They look very uncomfortable at her presence and seem to be transmitting a simple message: she is not welcome on the world stage.
Given the results of the 2020 election, it’s possible Donald Trump will take a path that moves him far away from politics. And only time will tell if Ivanka Trump once again follows in his footsteps.