Ivanka Trump speaks on the G20 Osaka Summit Recorded June 28, 2019
Ivana Marie "Ivanka" Trump (/ɪˈvɑːŋkə/; born October 30, 1981) is an American businesswoman. She is the second child of Donald Trump, the president of the United States, and his first wife, Ivana. Trump was a senior advisor in her father's first administration (2017–2021), and also the director of the Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship.
Trump converted to Judaism prior to marrying Jared Kushner, a real estate developer and publisher, in 2009. The couple have three children. Prior to her political career, she was an executive vice president of her family-owned Trump Organization and also a boardroom judge on her father's television show, The Apprentice. She also had a fashion lifestyle brand called under her own name that consisted of apparel, footwear, handbags, jewelry, and fragrance; Trump shut down the company in July 2018.
In January 2017, Trump became an unofficial advisor in her father's first presidential administration alongside her husband. In March that year, she became an official employee in his administration. While serving in the White House, she continued to retain ownership of businesses, which raised ethics concerns, specifically conflicts of interest.
Early life and education
Ivana Marie Trump was born on October 30, 1981,[1][2] in Manhattan, New York City, as the second child of Donald Trump and his first wife, the Czech-American model Ivana (néeZelníčková).[3][4] For most of her life, she has been nicknamed "Ivanka", a Slavicdiminutive form of her first name Ivana.[5] Trump's parents divorced in 1990 when she was nine years old.[6] Trump has two brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric, a half-sister, Tiffany, and a half-brother, Barron.
Trump attended Christ Church and the Chapin School in Manhattan until the age of 15 when she switched to Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut.[7] While she was attending boarding school as a teenager, she also began modeling "on weekends and holidays and absolutely not during the school year", according to her late mother, Ivana.[8] In May 1997, she was featured on the cover of Seventeen which ran a story on "celeb moms & daughters"[9][8]as well as in campaigns for Tommy Hilfiger, Thierry Muglar and Versace.[10][11]
After graduating from Wharton, Trump briefly worked for the real estate firm Forest City Ratner.[17] As executive vice president of development and acquisitions of the Trump Organization, she was responsible for the domestic and global expansion of the company's real estate interests.[18] Trump led the request for proposal (RFP) with the General Services Administration in February 2012, resulting in the final selection of the Trump Organization to develop the historic Old Post Office in Washington, D.C.[19][20] She then oversaw the $200-million conversion of the building into a luxury hotel, which opened in 2016.[21][22] Trump also led the acquisition and redevelopment of the famed Doral Hotel, a 700-room resort, in Miami.[23]
Independent of her family's real estate business, Trump also had her own line of Ivanka Trump fashion items, which included clothes, handbags, shoes, and accessories, available in U.S. and Canadian department stores including Macy's and Hudson's Bay.[24]
Trump in July 2007
Trump formed a partnership with Dynamic Diamond Corp., the company of the diamond vendor Moshe Lax, in 2007 to create Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, a line of diamond and gold jewelry sold at her first flagship retail store in Manhattan.[25][26] She also began selling jewelry online through her brand website, which had a major relaunch in August 2010.[27] Her flagship moved from Madison Avenue to 109 Mercer Street, a larger space in the SoHo district, in November 2011.[28][29] Celebrities were spotted wearing her jewelry including Jennifer Lopez on the cover of Glamour[30] and Rihanna on the cover of W magazine.[31] Her brand was named "Launch of the Year" in 2010 by Footwear News.[32] Trump's brand also went on to win other awards.[33]
Between 2010 and 2018, Trump was also a paid consultant for The Trump Organization. This "non-employee" dual status has been questioned while reviewing taxes and financial disclosures.[34][35] Trump closed down the company and separated herself from her business affiliations at the Trump Organization after she moved to D.C. to serve as a senior advisor to her father in the White House.[36][37] Members of 100 Women in Hedge Funds selected Trump to their board in December 2012.[38] Trump's flagship store on Mercer Street was reported to be closed in October 2015, and her brand was available at various retail locations including the Trump Tower, Hudson's Bay, and fine-jewelry stores.[39][40] She also had her own line of fashion items available in department stores.[41] Her brand faced criticism for using rabbit fur and was involved in a design infringement lawsuit with Aquazzura Italia SRL, which was later settled.[42][43] Shoes sold under her brand's name were supplied by Chengdu Kameido Shoes and Hangzhou HS Fashion.[44] The Accessories Council Excellence Awards recognized Trump with the Breakthrough Award, presented by designer Carolina Herrera in 2015.[45]
Between March and July 2016, Trump applied for 36 trademarks in China. Seven of them were approved between her father's inauguration in January 2017 and Chinese president Xi Jinping's state visit in the U.S. in April. Three provisional trademarks for handbags, jewelry, and spa services were granted on the day Xi dined with President Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago.[46] According to a trademark lawyer, the process usually takes 18 to 24 months. A Chinese government spokesman said that "the government handles all trademark applications equally."[47]The Washington Post reported in 2017, "an astounding 258 trademark applications were lodged under variations of Ivanka, Ivanka Trump and similar- sounding Chinese characters between Nov 10 and the end of last year... none appear to have a direct business link with the US president's daughter."[48] In 2017, she partnered with the World Bank to launch a fund for financing female entrepreneurs.[49]
Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom dropped Trump's fashion line due to poor sales in 2017, and other retailers followed.[50][51] Three members of China Labor Watch were arrested in China while investigating a company that produces shoes for American brands, including Trump's brand.[52][53] Trump announced in July 2018 that she shut down her company after deciding to pursue a career in public policy instead of returning to her fashion business.[54][55][56]
In 1997, at the age of 15, Trump co-hosted the Miss Teen USA Pageant, which was partially owned by her father, Donald Trump, from 1996 to 2005.[8] In 2006, she was a guest judge on Project Runway's third season. She reappeared as a guest judge on season 4 of Project Runway All Stars in 2014 and 2015.[63] In 2010, Trump and her husband made a cameo portraying themselves in Season 4 Episode 6 of Gossip Girl.[64]
Modeling
While Trump was attending boarding school as a teenager, she also began modeling "on weekends and holidays and absolutely not during the school year", according to her mother Ivana Trump.[65] She was featured in advertisements for Tommy Hilfiger,[65]Elle,[66] Vogue,[67] Teen Vogue,[68] Harper's Bazaar,[69] and Thierry Mugler,[70] She also engaged in fashion runway work.[71][70][72][73]In May 1997, she was featured on the cover of Seventeen.[74]Trump has been profiled in many women's fashion magazines, including Vogue,[75]Glamour,[76]Marie Claire,[77] and Elle.[78] She was featured on covers such as Harper's Bazaar,[69]Forbes, Forbes Life,[79]Marie Claire, Golf Digest,[80]Town & Country,[81]Elle Décor,[82]Shape,[83] and Stuff magazine.[84]Trump was featured in Vanity Fair's annual International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List in 2007 and 2008.[85]
The book was part of Trump's associated marketing campaign also titled "Women Who Work".[37] It received mixed reviews from critics.[92][93][94]
Trump campaign and administration
2016 presidential campaign and election
Trump introduced her father at the Trump Tower in 2015 as he announced his candidacy for president of the United States.[95][96] She publicly endorsed his presidential campaign and made public appearances supporting and defending him.[97][98][99] However, she admitted mixed feelings about his presidential ambitions, saying in October 2015, "As a citizen, I love what he's doing. As a daughter, it's obviously more complicated."[100]
In January 2016, Trump praised her father in a radio ad that aired in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.[101][102] She appeared by his side following the results of early voting states in 2016, in particular briefly speaking in South Carolina.[103][104] She was not able to vote in the New York primary in April 2016 because she had missed the October 2015 deadline to change her registration to Republican.[105]
Trump introduced her father in a speech immediately before his own speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention (RNC) in July.[106] The George Harrison song "Here Comes the Sun" was used as her entrance music. She stated, "One of my father's greatest talents is the ability to see the potential in people", and said he would "Make America Great Again".[107] Her speech was well received as portraying Donald Trump "in a warmer-than-usual light", according to The Washington Post.[108] After the speech, viewers commented that the speech was "one of the best – if not the best – of the night", and that Trump is the "greatest asset Donald Trump has".[109] Others said that her speech was the "high point of the convention".[110]
An earlier Post article had questioned whether the policy positions Trump espoused were closer to those of Hillary Clinton than to those of her father.[111] After the speech, the George Harrison estate complained about the use of his song as being offensive to their wishes.[109] The next morning, Ivanka's official Twitter account tweeted, "Shop Ivanka's look from her #RNC speech" with a link to a Macy's page that featured the dress she wore.[112]
After her father's election, Trump wore a bracelet on a 60 Minutes segment with her family, which her company then used in a marketing effort. When asked about it, she pointed to a marketing employee at one of her companies.[113]
In 2017, the artist Richard Prince returned a $36,000 payment he received in 2014 for a work depicting Trump as a protest against her father.[114] A coalition of New York art world figures unhappy with President Trump started an Instagram account called Dear Ivanka to protest against Donald Trump's presidency.[115]
In January 2017, Trump resigned from her position at the Trump Organization.[119] The organization also removed images of Trump and her father from their websites, in accordance with official advice on federal ethics rules.[120]
Trump (fourth from right) attending the signing ceremony for the INSPIRE Women Act on February 28, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House
After advising her father in an unofficial capacity for the first two months of his administration, Trump was appointed "First Daughter and Advisor to the President,"[121][122] a government employee, on March 29, 2017.[123][124][n 1] She did not take any salary for the position and didn't receive any government health benefits during her four years at the White House.[125][126][127] She also became the head of the newly established Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship.[128]
During the early months of her father's administration, some commentators compared her role in the administration to that of Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of President Richard Nixon. Nixon's daughter was one of the most vocal defenders of his administration, and Ivanka Trump defended President Trump and his administration against a myriad of allegations.[129][130] The Washington Post opinion columnist Alyssa Rosenberg wrote, "Both daughters served as important validators for their fathers."[129]
In late April 2017, Trump hired Julie Radford as her chief of staff. Before the end of the month, Trump and Radford had plans to travel with Dina Powell and Hope Hicks to the first W20 women's summit. The W20 was organized by the National Council of German Women's Organizations and the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs[131] as one of the preparatory meetings leading up to the G20 head-of-state summit in July. At the conference, Trump spoke about women's rights. The US media reported that when she praised her father as an advocate for women, some people in the audience hissed and booed in response.[132][133][134] The same month, Trump and then World Bank president Jim Yong Kim authored an op-ed published in the Financial Times on women's economic empowerment,[135] highlighting the critical role that women play in the development of societies and the business case for involving women in the formal economy.[136] Trump advocated for revisions to the Senate tax bill, which proposed doubling the child tax credit.[137]
In July 2017, Trump attended the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, with President Trump and the United States delegation.[138] She launched We-Fi (Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative),[139] a United States-led billion-dollar World Bank initiative to advance women's entrepreneurship.[140]
In August 2017, President Trump announced that Ivanka would lead a U.S. delegation to India in the fall in global support of women's entrepreneurship.[141][50][142] In September 2017, Trump delivered an anti-human trafficking speech at the United Nations General Assembly, calling it "the greatest human rights issue of our time".[143] The event was hosted by then British prime minister Theresa May, who personally invited Trump to a patriciate, in collaboration with Great Britain and Ireland.[143]
President Trump, Ivanka and British prime minister Theresa May attend a business roundtable event at St James's Palace in London, June 4, 2019.
Trump supported passage of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (HR 1865), which passed through both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2019.[146]
She and her father attended the 2019 G20 Osaka summit in late June 2019; the French government released a video of her awkwardly inserting herself into a conversation with world leaders, leading to online parodies and memes.[147][148]
After the G20 Summit in Osaka in June 2019, Trump joined President Trump to meet with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inside the Korean peninsula's demilitarized zone.[149][150] She described the experience as "surreal".[149]
The Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP) also aimed to increase access to vocational training, capital, and networks for women in the workforce, and remove limits on women’s economic participation. The two houses of Congress introduced bipartisan bills to attempt to codify the initiative.[158]
Trump backed a bill to fund paid family and medical leave for federal employees, which was passed by the Senate in December 2019.[159]
In 2021, a Government Accountability Office audit concluded that Trump's initiative, which spent $265million a year of taxpayer money on 19 women's empowerment projects, failed to target the money towards projects that related to women's empowerment, and did not measure the impact of the spending.[160]
In January 2020, Trump organized a Human Trafficking Summit at the White House where President Trump signed an executive order expanding his domestic policy office with a new position solely focused on combating human trafficking.[161][151] In June 2020, Trump hosted an event at the White House with the Attorney GeneralWilliam Barr, special advisor Heather C. Fischer, non-profit leaders, and survivors of human trafficking to announce $35million in grant funding to aid victims of human trafficking.[152]
In July 2020, Trump tweeted a picture of herself with a Goya Foods bean can, endorsing the product. The owner of Goya Foods had days prior praised President Trump, leading to a backlash against the company. Trump's tweet raised ethics concerns, given that Trump was at the time an official adviser in the White House, and employees in public office are not permitted to endorse products.[165]
In September 2020, Trump joined William Barr, the governor of Georgia Brian Kemp, the first lady of Georgia Marty Kemp, and Tim Tebow in Atlanta to announce $100million in grant funding for human trafficking.[166][167]
While serving in her father's administration, Trump retained ownership of businesses, which drew criticism from government ethics experts who said it created conflicts of interest.[168] It is not possible to determine the exact amount of Trump's outside income while working in her father's administration because she is only required to report the worth of her assets and liabilities in ranges to the Office of Government Ethics.[168] The incomes of Trump and her husband Jared Kushner ranged from $36.2million to $157million in 2019, at least $29million in 2018, and at least $82million in 2017.[168] In 2019, she earned $3.9million from her stake in the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C.[168]
Trump refused to address the rally at the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, but was in attendance.[170] During the ensuing riot at the U.S. Capitol, she encouraged her father to make a video on Twitter condemning the riots, acting as an intermediary between besieged U.S. officials and the President. (Donald Trump's video resulted in him being banned from the platform as he said "we love you" to the rioters.)[171]
When asked about her father's 2024 bid for presidency in November 2022, she 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. While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena. I am grateful to have had the honor of serving the American people and I will always be proud of many of our Administration's accomplishments.[173]
Social and political causes
Trump (second from left in first row) at Seeds of Peace in New York City in 2009
In 2007, Trump donated $1,000 to the presidential campaign of then-Senator Hillary Clinton.[174][175] In 2012, she endorsed Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.[176] In 2013, Trump and her husband hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic politician Cory Booker, and the couple bundled more than $40,000 for Booker's U.S. Senate campaign.[177]
During her father's presidency, Trump transformed from a liberal to an "unapologetically" pro-life, "proud Trump Republican".[178] At the 2016 Republican National Convention, she said of her political views: "Like many of my fellow millennials, I do not consider myself categorically Republican or Democrat."[179] In 2018, Trump changed her New York voter registration from Democratic to Republican.[180][181]
Philanthropy
In 2010, Trump cofounded Girl Up with the United Nations Foundation.[182] She was a member of the board of the Donald J. Trump Foundation until it was dissolved after then New York attorney general Barbara Underwood filed a civil lawsuit against the foundation for "persistently illegal conduct" with respect to the foundation's money.[183] In 2014, Trump launched IvankaTrump.com and the Women Who Work campaign which focused on young, modern professional women, aiming to provide a comprehensive lifestyle guide.[184] In November 2019, Trump's father was ordered to pay a $2million settlement for misusing the foundation for his business and political purposes.[185] The settlements also included mandatory training requirements for herself and her two elder brothers.[186]
Trump also has ties to a number of Jewish charities, including Chai Lifeline, a charity which helps to look after children with cancer.[187] Other charities she supports include United Hatzalah, to which her father, Donald Trump, has reportedly made six-figure donations in the past.[188][189] After she was appointed advisor to the president, Trump donated the unpaid half of the advance payments for her book Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success to the National Urban League and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.[88]
Trump collaborated with the nonprofit organizations CityServe, City of Destiny, and Mercy Chefs to supply a million meals to Ukrainian families in March 2022.[190] In December that year, she purchased generators for CityServe's partner churches in Ukraine that were without power.[191] That same year, alongside healthcare industry leaders, she organized five cargo planes of requested medical supplies for Ukraine with the support of the First Lady of Poland and the Polish ambassador to the UN.[192][193]
Trump has a close relationship with her father, who has publicly expressed his admiration for her on several occasions.[194][195] Ivanka has likewise praised her father, complimenting his leadership skills and saying he empowers other people.[196]Sarah Ellison, writing for Vanity Fair in 2018, noted that "everyone in the family seems to acknowledge" that Ivanka is her father's "favorite" child.[197] This had been confirmed by the family members themselves in a 2015 interview with Barbara Walters on network television where the siblings were gathered and acknowledged this.[198] According to her late mother, Ivanka speaks French and understands Czech.[199]
In January 2017 it was announced that she and Kushner had made arrangements to establish a family home in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C.[200] Federal filings implied that, in 2017, Trump and her husband may have assets upwards of $740million.[201] They had previously shared an apartment on Park Avenue in New York City, which Trump chose due to its proximity to her work with the Trump Organization. The residence was featured in Elle Decor in 2012 with Kelly Behun as its interior decorator.[202] Since leaving Washington in 2021, Ivanka and her husband have been residents of Surfside, Florida.[203][204]
Relationships and marriage
Trump was in a near four-year relationship with Greg Hersch while in college.[205][206] From 2001 to 2005, she dated James "Bingo" Gubelmann.[207][12][205] In 2005, she started dating the real estate developer Jared Kushner, whom she met through mutual friends.[208][209] The couple broke up in 2008 due to the objections of Kushner's parents[208] but reconciled and married in a Jewish ceremony on October 25, 2009.[208][210] They have three children: a daughter born in July 2011, and two sons born in October 2013 and March 2016 respectively.[211][212][213] In an interview on The Dr. Oz Show, Trump revealed that she had suffered from postpartum depression after each of her pregnancies.[214]
Religion
Trump (far right) with (from center to right) her father, stepmother, and husband at the Western Wall at Temple Mount in Jerusalem in May 2017
Raised as a Presbyterian Christian,[215] Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism in July 2009,[216][217] after studying with Elie Weinstock from the Modern OrthodoxRamaz School.[218] Trump took the Hebrew name "Yael" (Hebrew: יָעֵל, lit.''mountain goat' or ibex').[219][220] She describes her conversion as an "amazing and beautiful journey" which her father supported "from day one", adding that he has "tremendous respect" for the Jewish faith.[221] She attests to keeping a kosher diet and observing the Jewish Sabbath, saying in 2015: "We're pretty observant... It's been such a great life decision for me... I really find that with Judaism, it creates an amazing blueprint for family connectivity. From Friday to Saturday we don't do anything but hang out with one another. We don't make phone calls."[222] When living in New York City, she used to send her daughter to Jewish kindergarten. She said: "It's such a blessing for me to have her come home every night and share with me the Hebrew that she's learned and sing songs for me around the holidays."[221]
In 2012, the Wharton Club of New York, the official Wharton alumni association for the New York metropolitan area,[226] gave Trump the Joseph Wharton Award for Young Leadership, one of their four annual awards for alumni.[227]
↑ The original designation of "First Daughter" was later dropped from the official title.'"`UNIQ--ref-0000011F-QINU`"' Ivanka Trump is sometimes also called a 'Senior Advisor to the President' (or sometimes a 'senior advisor to the President', without the upper case 'S' and 'A'),'"`UNIQ--ref-00000120-QINU`"''"`UNIQ--ref-00000121-QINU`"' even though that is actually the title of her husband Jared Kushner, while her own title is 'Advisor to the President'.'"`UNIQ--ref-00000122-QINU`"'
↑ "About Ivanka". Ivanka Trump. November 14, 2012. Archived from the original on November 14, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2017. For level of honor see last paragraph of website bio.
↑ Gurley, George (January 29, 2007). "Trump Power: Ivanka Trump". Marie Claire. Archived from the original on June 1, 2023. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
↑ "Coverage of the Republican Convention. Aired 10-11p ET". CNN. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016. As the proud daughter of your nominee, I am here to tell you that this is the moment and Donald Trump is the person to make America great again!
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