Ivanka Trump showers her father with praise in a triumphant Republican convention speech from the White House

August 27, 2020

Ivanka Trump showers her father with praise in a triumphant Republican convention speech from the White House

Ivanka Trump, daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump and White House senior adviser, addresses attendees as Trump prepares to deliver his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House August 27, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Donald Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, showered her father and his administration with praise in a speech on Thursday during the final night of the Republican National Convention.
"To the hardworking men and women across america and here tonight, you are the reason my father fights with all his heart and all his might," Ivanka said.
The president's daughter offered a more humanizing picture of the president than any other convention speaker was able to deliver.
"I love you for being real, and I respect you for being effective," she said, addressing her father directly. "Washington has not changed Donald Trump, Donald Trump has changed Washington."
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President Donald Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, showered her father and his administration with praise in an impassioned and optimistic speech on Thursday during the final night of the Republican National Convention.

"To the hardworking men and women across america and here tonight, you are the reason my father fights with all his heart and all his might, you are the reason he ran for president in the first place, and you are the reason he's going to keep fighting for four more years," she said.

Chants of "four more years" broke out.

The president's daughter offered a more humanizing picture of the president than any other convention speaker was able to deliver. She mentioned both personal anecdotes involving the president's grandchildren, and insight into Trump's governing style behind closed doors.

"I love you for being real, and I respect you for being effective," Ivanka said, addressing her father directly. "Washington has not changed Donald Trump, Donald Trump has changed Washington."

During her time in the White House, Ivanka has focused her efforts on job training and family-centered efforts, including child care and paid family leave. She helped shepherd a child tax credit into the 2017 Republican tax reform legislation, which otherwise heavily benefited corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

"Four years ago, I told you my father would focus on making child care affordable and accessible," Ivanka said on Thursday night. "As part of Republican tax cuts, in 2019 alone, our child tax credit put over $2,000 into the pockets of 40 million American families."

Ivanka has played an influential and controversial role in the White House, serving as a top West Wing adviser to the president — an unprecedented position for the daughter of a US president. Her husband, Jared Kushner, has also long served as one of the president's closest and most trusted advisers, taking leadership on a vast array of issues, including Middle East peace efforts and criminal justice reform.

The president has regularly praised his daughter and son-in-law's work in the administration and exaggerated Ivanka's achievements. In one such example, he's repeatedly falsely claimed that Ivanka created 15 million jobs. In reality, Ivanka has secured non-binding pledges from private companies to offer job training to about 15 million potential workers.

While federal employees are barred from engaging in political activities, including campaigning, under the Hatch Act, Ivanka's office told the Associated Press that she had been approved to speak at the convention in her personal capacity as Trump's daughter.

The Republican convention has been rife with apparent federal ethics law violations. Among the most prominent were a speech by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a naturalized ceremony staged for the convention and presided over by the acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

Ivanka's speech comes as alleged tensions between herself and first lady Melania Trump are exposed in a forthcoming book by the first lady's former close friend, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. In an excerpt from the book published by New York Magazine on Wednesday, Wolkoff writes that Melania repeatedly sought to minimize her stepdaughter's role in the presidential inauguration and in the White House.