Ivanka briefly talks about father Donald Trump’s legal battles for the first time

By Stephen M. Lepore and Laura Parnaby for Dailymail.Com

22:44 02 Jul 2024, updated 08:11 03 Jul 2024

Ivanka Trump spoke out for the first time about her father’s legal battles in a podcast episode in which she also shed a tear while talking about her “extremely attractive” late mother, Ivanka.

During an on-camera interview with Lex Fridman, the 42-year-old spoke about Donald Trump’s numerous legal issues and revealed why she decided to drop out of her father’s 2024 reelection campaign.

“From a human perspective, he’s my father and I love him very much, so it’s a painful experience for me, but ultimately I wish it hadn’t happened,” Ivanka said.

Donald Trump has been charged in connection with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into election interference and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as allegations of mishandling classified documents in Florida.

Separately, Trump, 78, is accused of interfering in Georgia’s election. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Later in the podcast, Ivanka also became visibly emotional when asked about her mother, who died in July 2022 at the age of 73.

Asked if she misses her, Ivanka said: “So much. It’s unbelievable how devastating it is to lose a parent.

“And her mother, my grandmother, still lives with me, she helped raise us, so it’s really special.”

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Pausing to hold back tears, she added, “And I can ask her some questions that I would… I’m sorry. I wanted to ask my own mom, but it’s hard.”

Ivana Trump was an Olympic skier and model who was married to Donald Trump from 1977 to 1990. Her daughter described her as an “extraordinary, extraordinary woman.”

“She was a pioneer in so many ways: as an athlete growing up in communist Czechoslovakia, as a fashion mogul, as a real estate executive and as a builder,” Ivanka said.

“Just this all-around pioneering businesswoman. I learned from her, beyond that element, how to really enjoy life. I look back and some of my happiest memories of her are of the ocean.”just lying on your back, looking at the sun and just enjoying the moment or dancing.

“She loved to dance, so she really taught me a lot about how to live life to the fullest. And she had so much courage, so much conviction, so much energy and total comfort with who she was.”

“I remember scenes like this, when I see her in action, in different roles, often in the context of things that I would later do myself,” Ivanka added.

“So I would go there almost every day after school and go to the Plaza Hotel and follow her down the halls and just watch her.

“And she was so impossibly gorgeous. She did everything in four-and-a-half-inch heels, with that puffy one. It was almost an impossible sight.”

Ivanka served as a senior adviser in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, but has said she is stepping back from politics and was not actively involved in Trump’s second White House campaign.

She recently celebrated her father’s 78th birthday with her half-sister Tiffany, posting a series of photos on Instagram as a loving tribute.

Trump’s eldest daughter made her first public statement that she would not campaign for her father in 2024, as Donald announced his third run for the White House in 2022.

She said at the time: “I love my father very much. At this time, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the personal life we ​​have as a family,” the former White House adviser said. “While I will always love and support my father, I will do so outside of the political arena in the future.”

Fridman asked Trump to elaborate on her statement, now that Donald has re-secured the Republican nomination and is now a likely favorite to win the race in November.

“It was a decision rooted in me being a parent, really thinking about what they need from me right now. Politics is a tough business and I think you can’t play it, I think you have to be either completely in or completely out.”

Ivanka spoke of the “costs” her children would have to pay for her absence if she were to fully commit to the campaign, adding: “I’m not going to burden them with those costs.”

“As their mom, I think it’s really important that I do what’s right for them. I think there are so many ways you can serve, so much, so much scope of what you can accomplish in government service, but I think there’s something just as valuable about helping in your own community.”

She stated that there is “a lot of darkness, a lot of negativity” in politics and that it is the opposite of “what I enjoy as a human being.”

Earlier, Fridman asked Trump about her famous father, wondering how his election campaign affected her own life.

“Nothing in our lives was constructed with politics in mind,” she said when Donald first told her he was running.

“It was an incredible experience, there was so much intensity, so much control and so much noise. It definitely took a while to get used to. I’m not sure I ever fully got used to it.”

Ivanka said the “process” of learning about the day-to-day workings of the president while serving as a senior adviser was the “most extraordinary” part of her years in Washington.

She also spoke about the pressures she had to endure to help her father, a political novice who suddenly became the leader of the free world.

“My father had never stayed overnight in Washington before he moved into the White House,” she said.

“He trusted us and our ability to execute the plan. I didn’t have a shred of imagination that I would say no in 70 or 80 years.”

She also talked about something more personal than just her mother’s death and the challenges she sets for herself.

“I was the daughter of two incredibly successful people, and that could be devastating for me. I saw it in a lot of my friends who grew up in similar circumstances,” she said.

“They were afraid to try because they were afraid they wouldn’t measure up, and I learned early on to use my fear of not being good enough, not being competent enough, and I used it to become a better person.”

Ivanka was noticeably absent the evening her father announced his November 2022 campaign launch. Trump turned his attention to the other family members in the room, including his wife, former First Lady Melania Trump, and his middle son Eric.

Youngest son Barron, as well as wife Erica Lara and Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle, were also in attendance for Trump’s nomination announcement at the Mar-a-Lago ballroom.

Donald Trump Jr. was unable to listen to the speech due to a plane breakdown as he was returning to Florida from a hunting trip.

Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner have tried to distance themselves from the turbulent world of politics in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and his numerous legal woes.

After Trump left office in January 2021, they moved to Florida with their children, Arabella, 12, Joseph, 9, and Theodore, 8.

It was a change for the 42-year-old who had been deeply involved in her father’s presidency.

She was entrusted with an important role in meetings with G20 representatives and Kim Jong-un, for which she faced accusations of nepotism.

However, according to people close to her and her husband, Ivanka has no intention of returning to Washington.

Ivanka herself has expressed a desire for a more peaceful life in 2022.

“This time I have decided to prioritize my young children and the private life we ​​are building as a family,” she said in a statement.

“I have no plans to get involved in politics. While I will always love and support my father, I will do so outside of the political arena in the future.”

Kushner, meanwhile, was present when Trump’s reelection was announced. He served as a senior adviser to his father-in-law until Trump left office.

That same year, Kushner founded his own investment firm, Affinity Partners, in Miami.