Ivanka Trump has publicly sworn off politics and has said she wants no part of Washington, D.C., or the White House should her father, former President Donald Trump, win again in November. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t prepared to help him, especially following his “painful” hush money conviction.
In 2016, Ivanka was a prominent part of her father’s first campaign and in 2020, she introduced him at the Republican National Convention, which was during the height of the COVID pandemic and was held without attendance. Now, despite swearing off politics to focus on her young children, the New York Post reports she’ll be in Milwaukee to watch his acceptance speech after he’s formally nominated as the GOP candidate.
“The RNC will run from July 15-18 at the Fiserv Forum, and Trump sources stressed that Ivanka will not serve in any political capacity at the event, as a delegate, fundraiser or otherwise,” The Post noted, adding that she told podcaster Lex Fridman recently that politics is a “rough, rough business” and a “pretty dark world.”
Also during the interview, Ivanka spoke about her father’s conviction earlier this year in Manhattan on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
“On a human level, it’s my father, and I love him very much, so it’s painful to experience, but ultimately, I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” Ivanka, 42, said on Tuesday. Previously, she posted a throwback photo of her and her dad after his conviction, with the message, “I love you dad.”
While both Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, served in the White House during Trump’s presidency—she as a senior advisor in the administration—she told Fridman that she had to prioritize the safety of her children, Arabella (12), Joseph (9), and Theodore (7). She and her family moved to Miami after leaving D.C. following the former president’s 2020 loss to Joe Biden, where she vowed never again to “dabble” in the political world.
“I think first and foremost, it was a decision rooted in me being a parent, really thinking about what they need from me now,” she told Fridman. “Politics is a rough, rough business and I think it’s one that you also can’t dabble in. I think you have to either be all in or all out.”
