- Ivanka Trump last week said her time in politics was over even as her father seeks a new term.
- Her time in Donald Trump’s campaigns and administration came at a high social cost for Ivanka.
- Reports said that losing friends and heavy public criticism helped convince her to leave politics.
Ivanka Trump said in November 2022 that her time in politics was over, and that she wouldn’t help Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The announcement hinted at the personal cost she paid for playing a public role in Trump’s political career.
Prior to working in the White House, Ivanka was a businesswoman, runway model, and fashion designer. She was popular.
She has been famous her entire life. She even starred in a 2003 documentary about growing up rich and famous.
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.
That started to change when Trump launched his 2015 presidential campaign, putting his family front and center.
Ivanka joined him on the campaign trail, making high-profile speeches at events like the Republican National Convention in July 2016.
When he won the 2016 election, Trump soon appointed Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, as unpaid White House advisors.
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.
In 2017, major retailers ditched Ivanka’s clothing brand following customer protests and weak sales.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Ivanka also lost many friends due to her role in the White House.
Lysandra Ohrstrom, Ivanka Trump’s childhood best friend, said last year that their different stances on social issues led to them growing apart.
Ivanka also used to be friends with Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Trump’s 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton.
But Chelsea Clinton said in 2020 that she decided to cut her ties with Ivanka because she had “no interest in being friends with someone who is not only complicit but actively taking part in this administration’s everyday collision of cruelty and incompetence.”
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.
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 and Kushner ended up choosing Miami, Florida, over New York City and have been spending time with their three children.
