How Ivanka Trump is making a comeback in US high society after being shunned for joining her father in politics
Then-president Donald Trump talks with Ivanka Trump during a meeting at the White House on June 26, 2020.
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Ivanka Trump's time in her father's administration came at a high social cost.
Reports said that losing friends and heavy public criticism helped convince her to leave politics.
As her father seeks a new term, Ivanka is instead focused on re-entering US high society.
Ivanka Trump said in November 2022 that her time in politics was over, and that she wouldn't help Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.
Then-President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump make their way to board Air Force One on January 4, 2021.
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Ivanka Trump was notably absent from former President Donald Trump's campaign launch in Palm Beach, Florida.
In a public statement after the launch, she said: "I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics."
The announcement hinted at the personal cost she paid for playing a public role in Trump's political career.
Ivanka Trump is seen taking a walk with husband Jared Kushner and their children in Miami, Florida, on June 12, 2021.
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An unnamed source told the New York Post that Ivanka wanted out — and to live "as normal a life as she can."
She and her husband, Jared Kushner, have three children: Arabella, 11, Joseph, nine, and Theodore, six.
Prior to working in the White House, Ivanka was a businesswoman, runway model, and fashion designer. She was popular.
Ivanka Trump attends the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, on May 5, 2014.
She has been famous her entire life. She even starred in a 2003 documentary about growing up rich and famous.
A screengrab of Ivanka Trump in the "Born Rich" documentary released in 2003.
Born Rich/YouTube/Gangster Capitalism
As an avid Manhattan socialite, Ivanka was often invited to red-carpet events and has been pictured with other celebrities, including Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
Anna Wintour, Anthony Weiner and Ivanka Trump attend the 2015 New York Gala on February 11, 2015.
That started to change when Trump launched his 2015 presidential campaign, putting his family front and center.
Donald Trump at a campaign rally with his daughter Ivanka Trump, in Concord, New Hampshire, on January 18, 2016.
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Ivanka joined him on the campaign trail, making high-profile speeches at events like the Republican National Convention in July 2016.
Ivanka Trump speaks at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on July 21, 2016.
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When he won the 2016 election, Trump soon appointed Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, as unpaid White House advisors.
President Donald Trump with senior advisors Ivanka Trump (L) and Jared Kushner (2nd L) at the White House on December 11, 2019.
During her time in the White House, Ivanka faced fierce criticism from those who wanted her to use her influence to stop Trump implementing some his policies.
Ivanka Trump listens during an event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on August 4, 2020.
In 2017, major retailers ditched Ivanka's clothing brand following customer protests and weak sales.
Ivanka Trump presents her Spring 2012 clothing collection on March 6, 2012.
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Some of the retailers who dropped Ivanka's clothing brands included Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Gilt, and Burlington.
In July 2018, Ivanka was forced to shut down her fashion company, saying in a statement: "I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington."
That same year, "Saturday Night Live" aired a fake commercial for a fragrance called "Complicit" which featured Scarlett Johansson and mocked Ivanka's role in the White House.
The skit's voiceover described Ivanka as "the woman who could stop all this, but won't."
The commercial appeared to upset Ivanka, who "couldn't stop bemoaning it" at a senior staff meeting, Omarosa Newman, a former political aide to Trump, said in 2018.
Ivanka Trump during the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio, on July 19, 2016.
In a separate interview, Ivanka responded to the skit by saying: "If being complicit is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact, then I'm complicit."
Ivanka Trump speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 21, 2016.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
"I hope to make a positive impact, I don't know what it means to be complicit, but I hope time will prove that I have done a good job and much more importantly, my father's administration is the success that I know it will be," Ivanka told CBS Mornings.
In 2018, a string of celebrities whom Ivanka followed on social media made a concerted effort to shame her over the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant children from their families at the US border.
Ivanka Trump addresses attendees at the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House, on August 27, 2020.
But celebrities — including fashion designer Alexa Chung, and actress Amy Schumer — were not happy with her response.
They launched a "Dear Ivanka" social-media campaign, which involved sharing an Instagram post saying: "Dear Ivanka, you follow me on social media. You said family separation was a 'low point' for you. The low point is for the separated families."
"You spoke in the past tense. The crisis is still ongoing," it continued.
President Joe Biden signed executive orders last year aimed to dismantle Trump's immigration policies over the years.
When Kushner and Ivanka traveled to Rome for a wedding in 2019, other guests shunned them to avoid being in the same photos, Vanity Fair reported.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump walk to the White House after landing on the South Lawn on July 26, 2020.
Ivanka also lost many friends due to her role in the White House.
Wendi Deng Murdoch (L) and Ivanka Trump attend a fashion show in New York City, on February 9, 2013 in New York City.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Lysandra Ohrstrom, Ivanka Trump's childhood best friend, said that their different stances on social issues led to them growing apart.
Lysandra Ohrstrom and Ivanka Trump in New York City in 2007.
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
"I think it's past time that one of the many critics from Ivanka's childhood comes forward – if only to ensure that she really will never recover from the decision to tie her fate to her father's," Ohrstrom wrote in a tell-all essay published in Vanity Fair.
Ivanka was hurt by how friends "turned their backs" on her during her father's administration, an unnamed source told The New York Post after she said she wouldn't return to politics.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner at the funeral of Ivana Trump on July 20, 2022.
After Trump lost the 2020 election, a Vanity Fair report claimed that Ivanka and Kushner would not be welcomed back in some New York circles if they tried to return to the city, citing interviews with former friends.
Ivanka Trump in Miami, Florida, on February 10, 2021.
Mega/GC Images
"They'll be welcomed back by people who know the Trumps are as close as they'll get to power," one former friend told Vanity Fair.
"But everyone with self-respect, a career, morals, respect for democracy, or who doesn't want their friends to shame them both in private and public will steer clear," they added.
Ivanka and Kushner ended up choosing Miami, Florida, over New York City and have been spending time with their three children.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Surfside, Florida, on September 17, 2022.
MEGA/GC Images
A source told The New York Post that she "hated all the criticism and the threats" that came with being in politics.
Ivanka Trump speaks at the White House on August 27, 2020.
Ivanka has continued to keep a distance from her father as he battles multiple, high-profile lawsuits
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Ivanka and her family are staying "far away" from Trump even though they live in the same state, Page Six reported, citing two separate and unnamed sources.
She even left him out of an Instagram post showcasing images of her daughter's bar mitzvah celebrations in June. She only included a picture of Trump in her Instagram Stories.
Among other lawsuits, Trump is, at the time of writing, fighting federal charges of mishandling classified documents after his presidency.
Meanwhile, Ivanka appears to be trying to get into certain social circles again— at least in California, where she was spotted partying at Kim Kardashian's birthday bash.
Ivanka Trump is seen at Funke for Kim Kardashian's birthday party on October 20, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
JB Lacroix/Contributor/Getty Images
Kardashian posted photos of the event on Instagram, including a group photo that included Ivanka, who wore a stylish, sparkly white, two-piece set.
In another photo Kardashian posted to her Instagram story, she and Ivanka were seated next to each other and appeared to be laughing.
An entertainment attorney with high-profile clients previously told Insider that she wasn't surprised to see Ivanka and Kardashian together as Trump's eldest daughter is "trying to establish herself as separate and apart from her father."
"Although Ivanka has supported her father, even working for his various companies and in the White House, she has really tried to distance herself from him in the aftermath of his presidency," Mitra Ahouraian told Insider's Kelsey Vlamis and Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert.
"I'm not at all surprised that Ivanka has managed to re-engage with her social circles and establish herself as separate and apart from her father," Ahouraian added.
But despite the recent social moves, one legal analyst previously told Insider that Ivanka still has to contend with the potential for more court-related reputational damage.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, after his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury following a probe into hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, in New York City, U.S., April 4, 2023.
REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Referring to a civil fraud trial facing the Trump Organization in which Ivanka has been subpoenaed to testify, attorney and legal analyst Andrew Lieb told Insider: "It's all working out and she's doing all these great things until she hits the dumpster truck head-on when she's called to testify ... in the case."
"So, no matter how much rebranding she does, the reality is going to hit as soon as she's back in the courtroom," Lieb said.
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