Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Many of us were so distracted by Melania’s Inauguration Day hat that we forgot to check in on another Trump making bold headwear choices. But Ivanka Trump did not forget to relaunch her brand as “perfect, apolitical First Daughter.”
Though Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, served as White House advisers throughout all four years of Donald Trump’s first term, in 2022 she announced she was swearing off politics. For the next two years, she mostly avoided her dad in public. But after Donald’s 2024 win, Ivanka reemerged, sharing trite wellness advice and signaling that she’s ready to embrace all the perks of being First Daughter — without engaging in the “darkness” of politics.
Thus, over the past week, Ivanka’s Instagram has been full of cute photos of her kids hanging out at the White House and shots of Ivanka showing off her many glitzy ball gowns. On Monday night, she posted this Inauguration Day wrap-up. It featured lots of photos of Ivanka’s green suit-and-hat ensemble (which some compared to a look worn by the wives in The Handmaid’s Tale), with a prayer for her father’s second term in the caption.
“My prayer is for strength, wisdom, and compassion to guide his every decision,” Ivanka wrote. “May he lead with understanding and an open heart, striving to bring unity where there is division and peace where there is conflict.”
Okay, sure. We’d all like to have a president who possesses these qualities. But has Ivanka met her dad? Strength? Sure, that’s what being a “strong man” is all about. Wisdom? I guess winning a presidential election requires some smart political judgment. But “compassion,” leading with “an open heart,” and “striving to bring unity where there is division”?
We’re talking about the same Donald Trump whose responses to his critics range from calling Chris Christie a “fat pig” to threatening to execute General Mark Milley?
It’s hard to say what’s actually going on here. Does Ivanka really think that her dad might develop an entirely new personality in his second term? Or is this an “emperor’s new clothes” thing, where we’re supposed to pretend Donald Trump is a “uniter, not a divider” because that’s what fits with Ivanka’s new apolitical branding?
