Ivanka Trump
Ivanka Trump, born in 1981, is the daughter of former U.S. President Donald Trump and Ivana Trump. Growing up in a high-profile family, she attended prestigious schools and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics. Before entering politics, she built a career as a business executive, launching her own fashion and jewelry brands, and gained public recognition through appearances on television shows like "The Apprentice."
During her father's presidency, Ivanka served as a senior advisor, focusing on women's issues and economic initiatives. She played a prominent role in his administration, representing the U.S. at international summits and promoting policies related to women's empowerment and entrepreneurship. After leaving the White House in January 2021, she shifted her focus back to business ventures and involvement in legal matters concerning her family's business activities.
Ivanka is married to Jared Kushner, and they have three children together. She is an observant Jew, having converted to Judaism before their marriage. Despite her complex legacy, Ivanka continues to stay active in public life, recently supporting her father's political endeavors.
Ivanka Trump
Businesswoman
- Born: October 30, 1981
- Place of Birth: New York, New York
Education: Georgetown University; University of Pennsylvania
Significance: Ivanka Trump is the daughter of former US president Donald Trump and served as his senior advisor. She was considered to be an important figure in her father’s administration. She is a business executive and former fashion model and designer.
Background
Ivanka Trump was born in Manhattan in 1981, the middle of three children in a wealthy family of media-savvy celebrities. Her parents are real-estate mogul and former US president Donald Trump and Czech American model Ivana Trump (after whom Ivanka is named—“Ivanka” being a nickname, or diminutive form, of “Ivana”); the family was very much in the public eye, and Ivanka’s parents garnered national attention during their contentious divorce, finalized in 1992, when Ivanka was eleven. Ivanka attended the Chapin School in Manhattan until she was fifteen, and then attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. She began modeling at age fourteen, signing with Elite Model Management, and did both print and runway modeling work. She also cohosted the Miss Teen USA pageant in 1997.
Trump attended Georgetown University from 2000 to 2002, and then transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated cum laude with an economics BA in 2004.
Business Career
Trump took a position with real estate developer Bruce Ratner at Forest City Enterprises after college, working for the company for one year before joining her father’s firm, the Trump Organization, in 2005 as executive vice president of development and acquisitions. In 2007 she created Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry and opened a flagship retail store in Manhattan, later relocating to a larger space in the Soho district. This location closed in 2015, but the brand was available at retailers internationally. She also lent her name to a branded line of clothing and accessories.
Ivanka Trump appeared in her father’s television series The Apprentice, beginning in 2006, when she appeared in five episodes of the program. She also appeared on Bravo’s Project Runway in 2006 as a guest judge. She became a permanent cast member of The Apprentice in 2007, a role she continued until 2015.
Trump published her first book, The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life, in 2009; it became a New York Times bestseller. In May 2017, with her father in the White House, Trump published Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success, to disappointing sales and mixed reviews.
Political Career
Trump, like her father, has supported both Republican and Democratic candidates and parties over time, including Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential run in 2007 and Democrat Cory Booker’s 2013 Senate campaign. She began making appearances on behalf of her father’s presidential ambitions in 2015. During the 2016 campaign, Trump emerged as a key advisor to her father, particularly regarding women’s issues, and an asset to the campaign, appearing in radio ads in Iowa and New Hampshire, and appearing with her father at numerous campaign stops during the primary. She was selected to introduce her father at the 2016 Republican National Convention, where she was widely praised for adding a warmer, human element to her father’s campaign. Shortly after her appearance, however, Ivanka’s brand used the opportunity to promote sales of the dress she wore at the convention, resulting in widespread media attention. She positioned herself in that speech as an independent who still supported her father as the clear choice for president.
Following her father’s election as president in 2016 and her appointment as one of his top advisors, Ivanka Trump along with other members of her family faced criticism, as well as organized boycotts, for their high-level personal business involvement while working in the White House. In 2017, Trump gave up day-to-day management of her clothing company, and in July 2018 she announced she was closing her fashion line altogether in order to focus on her public policy work.
Trump moved to Washington, DC, in January 2017, after stepping down from her position with the Trump Organization and was a visible member of her father’s inner circle, with some noting that she was fulfilling many of the roles traditionally associated with the first lady. After two months without a formal position, and with controversy building over her level of access to secure information, she was given the title “advisor to the president,” and became a government employee in March 2017. She declined to take a salary. In September 2017, it was revealed that she had used personal emails to discuss government work, generating significant controversy.
As advisor to the president, Trump led delegations to economic summits around the world and accompanied her father on diplomatic visits abroad. In 2017, she attended the first W20 women's summit; went with her father to the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, and the Korean demilitarized zone; and headed a 350-member delegation to Hyderabad, India, for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. In 2019, she promoted her Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative by touring Africa and South America, and appeared before the United Nations General Assembly. In 2020, she introduced her father at the Republican National Convention, where he accepted the party's nomination for the presidency. Donald Trump went on to lose the November 2020 presidential election to former vice president Joe Biden.
Trump continued to work in the White House after her father lost the election. During this time, Donald Trump was attempting to overturn the results of the election and began spreading unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. She was with her father in the White House on January 6, 2021, when a group of Trump supporters stormed the US capitol building in Washington, DC, in a failed attempt to halt the certification of the election results.
Post-Trump Presidency
Trump left her position in the White House and shifted her focus back toward other ventures after Biden was inaugurated on January 20, 2021. In October of that year she and her husband, Jared Kushner, who had also worked for the Trump administration, founded the Abraham Accords Caucus, an organization dedicated to helping Israel strengthen its economic ties to other states in the Middle East, particularly those in the Gulf region, and broker future political deals between Israel and other nations.
During the early 2020s, Trump was also involved in a number of high-profile legal cases and investigations centered on her father and the Trump family's business activities. She was subpoenaed by the attorney general of New York in January 2022 as part of an investigation into the Trump Organization and the Trump family's business practices. She also voluntarily appeared before the House of Representatives' Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in April 2022 and was questioned for eight hours about her actions during the Capitol Riot. Her testimony included an admission that she did not believe her father's claims that the election was stolen.
Impact
Ivanka Trump was a member of President Trump’s inner circle and among his most trusted advisors. Trump represented the administration at various state events and spoke at international gatherings like the W20 women’s summit in Berlin in 2017. While she supported White House initiatives including paid family leave, worker retraining programs, and women's economic empowerment around the globe, she has become involved with controversies, including her and her husband's continued ownership of and profits from outside businesses while serving in the White House, which many felt represented a potential conflict of interest. She was ordered to testify in early 2022 in the ongoing investigation into the Trump Organization's finances. She also cooperated with the House investigation into Donald Trump's involvement in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. That same year, Trump announced that she would not reenter the world of politics during her father's presidential campaign. However, in 2024, Trump attended the Republican National Convention in support of her father.
Personal Life
Ivanka Trump married Jared Kushner in 2009. In 2021, they moved to Surfside, Florida, with their three children. Trump is an observant Jew, having converted prior to her marriage.
Bibliography
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Flanagan, Caitlin. “What Is Ivanka Trump’s Role in the White House?” The Atlantic, 13 Jan. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/what-is-ivanka-trumps-role-in-the-white-house/580045/. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
LaFraniere, Sharon, and Maggie Haberman. “Washington Official Subpoenas Trump Inaugural Committee.” The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/us/politics/trump-inaugural-committee.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Harrington, Rebecca. “From Rich Kid to First Daughter: The Life of Ivanka Trump.” Business Insider, 20 Nov. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/ivanka-trump-bio-life-fun-facts-2017-3. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Hoffman, Megan Mills. Ivanka Trump: Entrepreneur and First Daughter. Cavendish Square, 2018.
Murray, Sara, and Betsy Klein. “The Education of Ivanka Trump.” CNN, 13 Dec. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/12/12/politics/ivanka-trump-white-house-role/index.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Pilkington, Ed. "Trump and Two Eldest Children Must Testify in New York Case, Judge Rules." The Guardian, 17 Feb. 2022, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/17/donald-trump-children-testify-new-york-fraud-investigation. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Sherman, Gabriel. "As Donald Trump's Prospects Soar, Ivanka Inches Back to the National Stage." Vanity Fair, 12 July 2024, www.vanityfair.com/news/story/donald-trump-ivanka-rnc. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Singh, Maanvi. "Ivanka Trump Says She Does Not Believe Father’s Claim 2020 Election Was Stolen." The Guardian, 9 June 2022, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/09/ivanka-trump-election-not-stolen-testimony. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.