Ivanka Trump revealed the role she’ll play in her father’s upcoming administration and got candid about the ‘craziness’ that comes with working in the White House.
The first daughter, who served as an adviser to Donald Trump in his first term, said she just wants to be his emotional support this time around.
‘I’m most looking forward to just being able to show up for him as a daughter and be there for him, to take his mind off things and like watch a movie with him or watch a sports game, to know that he can be with me and be himself, and just relax,’ she told The Skinny Confidential podcast.
‘It’s the world’s loneliest position, the enormity of the decisions you’re making on a daily basis, how transactional everyone is with you,’ she added. ‘So it’s a very lonely perch.’
She made it clear she will have no formal role in the second Trump administration.
‘I went through years of craziness,’ she said of her first tenure in the White House.
But Ivanka speaks to her father nearly every day and is likely to be an influence behind-the-scenes even without a formal title.
In the two-hour interview, Ivanka Trump discussed the massive changes in her life that took place when she joined the first Trump administration, her current self-care routine, and what she sees as her future role as a member of the Trump family.
‘I hate politics,’ she confessed.
‘I hate politics,’ Ivanka Trump told the Skinny Confidential podcast
She noted that she ‘loves policy’ and pointed with pride to her work on the child tax credit during her time in the White House. Ivanka got the tax credit doubled as it wen through the legislative process.
But, she said, she couldn’t stand the ‘darkness’ of the political world.
‘Unfortunately, the two are not, you know, there is a darkness to that world that I don’t really want to welcome into mine,’ she said.
She had an up close view of it four years ago when she had an office in the West Wing from 2017 until Donald Trump left in January 2021. She was constant presence in the Oval Office and joined her father in his travels both domestically and internationally.
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But Ivanka Trump was not involved in Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. It was a stark contrast to the 2020 race, where she was a regular presence at his rallies.
She told podcast hosts Lauryn Bosstick and Michael Bosstick that her experience in the White House was a ‘very emotional time.’
‘You become a little bit calloused,’ she said.
‘It’s a very dark, negative. And some people love like the gladiator aspect of it,’ she noted. ‘The fight – that was never me.’
Donald Trump’s first four years in the White House was marked by staff in-fighting, backstabbing, and leaks. Aides set up competing fiefdoms inside the West Wing and battled among each other to have the most influence on the president.
‘Oh my gosh, I don’t think I saw sunlight for four years,’ she said of being an adviser to the president.
But she said the main reason she’s not returning to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is her children Arabella, Joseph And Theodore.
‘The main reason I am not going back to serve now is, I know the cost. And it’s a price that I’m not willing to make my kids bear,’ she said.
‘My primary goals were just to like, be the best freaking mom,’ she said. ‘Every time I had to miss something, I’m like, I will never let this happen again in the minute I leave the White House.’
Ivanka Trump served as a senior adviser to Donald Trump in his first term but will have no formal role in his second administration
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner now live in Miami with their three children – above the couple with Arabella and Joseph
Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner now live in Miami where Ivanka has been spotted on school runs and watching her kids’ sporting activities. She’s also taking up surfing and jujutsu.
‘I feel super great about this decision,’ she said of deciding to stay in Florida instead of moving back to Washington D.C.
She did, however, credit her time in the White House to opening her own horizons.
‘It was a time of extraordinary personal growth for me and learning,’ she said.
‘In retrospect I was able to break free of a bubble that I didn’t even know that I was in of the sort of Upper East Side of New York.’
She also said her father has much better staff and supporter around him now. And she noted Donald Trump has spent the past four years preparing for his return.
‘He’s got so much energy and support and excitement. And I think the four years has really allowed him to calibrate, you know, how he wants to spend this next four years. And he’s incredibly excited and enthusiastic,’ she said.