Skipping family events? Throwing dad under the campaign bus? Ever since Donald Trump
left office, the gulf between him and Ivanka has just kept widening.
After he lost the 2020 election, Donald Trump delivered a loaded speech at the Conservative
Political Action Conference in 2021. But Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner were nowhere
to be seen, despite being two of Trump's senior advisors during his tenure in the White House.
"What exactly is her role here?"
"I think her role is to be helpful and provide input."
An inside source told CNN that Ivanka was taking a massive step back from politics,
and that she'd asked her friends not to mention Washington in
conversations. The source claimed that Ivanka had encouraged her husband to do the same.
Others speculated that Trump blamed Kushner for him losing the election. A source close to Kushner
told CNN that his absence at the conference was due to Kushner being with his family.
This excuse, if the other sources are to be believed, could also be a result
of Ivanka trying to distance herself and her whole family from her father's antics.
Sources also told the New York Post that Ivanka lost plenty of
friends while working for her father's administration. The source claimed:
"Ivanka hated all the criticism and the threats,
and was unhappy about how a lot of their friends turned their back on them."
Would you like to go to a party where Donald Trump appointed himself the DJ? Well,
Ivanka Trump didn't. When her 41st birthday rolled around on October 30, 2022, the former
first daughter decided to celebrate with her younger sister Tiffany Trump and some friends.
Trump was throwing a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago around the same time. Whether
it was supposed to serve as a celebration for Ivanka's birthday as well is unclear,
but it seems she dodged a bullet because, as sources told Page Six, Trump's choice
of music at the party mostly consisted of '80s tunes and tracks from "Phantom of the
Opera," which left some guests grumbling in protest. Ivanka, meanwhile, was in Miami.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have notably skipped a few family gatherings and events
since Trump lost the election, and they were nowhere to be seen when Trump made
the trip to Jupiter, Florida, to celebrate the birthday of Kimberly Guilfoyle in 2023.
A source told Page Six that the couple had a prior commitment, saying:
"They were invited to Kimberly's birthday party and were so sad to miss it. Their
niece's bat mitzvah was Thursday evening and it had been planned a long time ago."
This wasn't the first time the couple was absent from a family gathering,
however. After Trump lost the election, a family friend revealed to CNN that
Ivanka and her husband's visits to Mar-a-Lago had decreased drastically.
Ivanka and her husband also failed to attend Trump's 75th birthday dinner,
with insiders telling SheKnows that the couple was trying to keep their distance from the former
president's inner circle in an attempt to better maintain a personal relationship with Trump.
While on a family holiday, Ivanka Trump and her husband spent a weekend with Nikki Haley,
the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and an estranged colleague of Donald
Trump. Haley resigned in October 2018, and has voiced criticism over Trump's reaction to his
2020 election loss. She's also announced that she's running for president in 2024.
Haley, who was seen dining with Ivanka and her family at a popular restaurant in South Carolina,
admitted publicly that she was trying to distance herself from the former president,
and that she hadn't spoken to Trump since he lost the election. Sources
close to Ivanka and Kushner told CNN that the family's visit to Haley was no big deal,
and simply one of the stops on the way to their destination.
In a surprising turn of events, Ivanka Trump did not support Donald Trump's claims of election
fraud. The world won't soon forget the U.S. Capitol riots that took place on January 6, 2021.
During the investigation, Ivanka made it clear to the January 6 committee that she did not support
her father's claims that the election was stolen from him. Ivanka testified that she didn't agree
with her father's choice to announce his supposed victory on Election Day. She said, via NBC News:
"I don't know that I had a firm view as to what he should say, in that circumstance. The results were
still being counted. It was becoming clear that the race would not be called on election night."
Ivanka also testified that her views on possible election fraud were changed after she spoke with
then-Attorney General William Barr, who assured her the election had been as fair as could be.
"I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying."
Trump wasn't happy with her testimony, and in a statement following the committee's
proceedings, he dismissed his daughter's testimony. He wrote on Truth Social:
"Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at,
or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out."
Keeping legal battles at arm's length Donald Trump has had his fair share of legal woes,
but Ivanka Trump has completely distanced herself from her father's legal battles
and seems determined to look the other way while it all plays out.
A source revealed to People that Ivanka has adopted somewhat of a
live-and-let-die attitude toward her father. The source claimed:
"Donald does what he wants, and she can't help him now. His help is in the hands of
his lawyers and advisers. She is no longer working in that capacity."
Another source alleged that being a member of the White House staff is not all it's
cracked up to be, and that Ivanka feels like she lost four precious years of her
life while working in Washington. Now, she's determined to rebuild it. The source said:
"Even though Ivanka loves her dad, she knows how impossible he can be."
The source added that she's focusing on her children and
getting back to living her own life on her own terms.
For those not in the know, Ivanka Trump is currently caught up in a $250 million
fraud lawsuit with Donald Trump and her brothers. The suit was filed by
Attorney General Letitia James' office in September 2022 and accuses the Trumps of
inflating the value of their properties in order to acquire certain economic benefits.
"And so the question is, 'Where did he get all that money from?'"
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump quickly hired lawyers to represent them and Ivanka in the case,
but it appears Ivanka is determined not to go down with her family. She
went ahead and appointed her own lawyers in addition to her
brothers', clearly not trusting their attorneys to successfully defend her.
Ivanka had barely appointed her new attorneys when one
of them asked the judge to delay the trial. After the request for a delay,
Ivanka appointed Bennet Moskowitz of Troutman Pepper as her sole legal counsel. It's clear
Ivanka is determined not to be implicated in the allegations, and it remains to be
seen whether she'll decide to throw some family members under the bus to accomplish this feat.
"I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States."
When Donald Trump announced that he'd be running for president again in 2024,
sources told UsWeekly that Trump can forget about his daughter,
Ivanka Trump, returning to his side. A source said at the time:
"Even if her dad begged her to be involved in his campaign again,
Ivanka would turn it down flat. [...] Ivanka had a rotten time toward the end of her dad's reign."
Well, it turns out that the unnamed source's intel was good, because not long after Trump
announced his 2024 campaign, Ivanka publicly declared that she had no plans to join it.
Not only was she not present at Mar-a-Lago when Trump announced his re-election bid,
but she also made it clear that she was done with politics and planned
to focus on her family. In a statement relayed by the Guardian, Ivanka said:
"I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and
the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics."
Thanks to the fraud lawsuit Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump, his sons,
and some of his executives are facing, the court appointed an official to monitor the
Trump Organization's finances to aid New York State Attorney General Letitia James in her case
against the former president. As a result, Ivanka's professional finances were being
monitored. She was not having it, however, and her lawyers managed to get her out of this one,
appealing to the court mere days after the financial monitoring was imposed.
Ivanka's attorneys claimed that she hadn't been involved with her father's
businesses since she joined the White House administration in 2017, saying:
"Ms. Trump has had no role as an officer, director,
or employee of the Trump Organization or any of its affiliates since at least January 2017."
Despite the appeal being successful, Ivanka's still not off the hook, as Ms. James' office
still suspects her of wrongdoing. Ivanka's move to appeal the financial monitoring
on her own behalf, as well as her decision to appoint her own attorneys to handle the case,
clearly shows that she's trying to distance herself from her father.
Trump was indicted in late March 2023, and Ivanka Trump had a very diplomatic approach
to the news in contrast to her family. Donald Jr. ranted about how the indictment was nothing
more than a calculated attempt to sabotage his father's 2024 presidential campaign.
"This is like, Communist-level s--t."
Ivanka, on the other hand, remained notably subdued.
Ivanka took to Instagram to make a statement,
but she didn't really say anything to defend her father, writing:
"I love my father, and I love my country. Today I am pained for both. I
appreciate the voices across the political spectrum expressing support and concern."
And that was it. Whether she was pained because of the scandal it caused or
because she believes her father to be innocent is not entirely clear.
Before Trump's indictment, sources told Page Six that Ivanka and her husband were planning
on keeping their distance from the whole mess, and it appears Ivanka is keeping her resolve.