Who is Ivanka Trump? Meet the real First Lady and possibly the reason Donald Trump won the US election
HER father may have just won the US presidential election but Ivanka Trump had more pressing concerns on her mind yesterday morning.
In a smart Manhattan coffee shop she had a tricky adversary on her hands — someone she needed to persuade to do exactly what she wanted.
Negotiations were touch-and-go until she went for the clincher: “OK, tomorrow, we will go to Dunkin’ Donuts.”
The offer worked. The deal was done. Her three-year-old son Joseph agreed to head off to school.
Like father like daughter. Offer something tantalising — and people will do as you wish.
But Ivanka is more than a chip off the old block. She is the glue that helps the block stick together.
The 35-year-old has become a star in her own right during the long campaign, and something of an icon to the female voters who helped dad Donald clinch the Presidency.
And while her step-mother, Melania, 46, will be the official First Lady, many pundits say Ivanka will be the real power behind the throne.
Family friend and business magnate Carl Icahn said: “I think her father really listens to her and when I say listens to her I mean I think her father respects her a great deal, and not just because she’s his daughter.”
During the campaign it was Ivanka who urged her father to behave in a more “presidential” manner on a number of occasions.
These included successfully persuading him to back off when he attacked a judge about his Mexican heritage. She also pushed him to tone down rhetoric on abortion.
A long-time pal of Chelsea Clinton, Ivanka even managed to maintain friendly relations with her father’s opponents.
And after his win, pundits declared the new First Daughter “the best part of a Trump presidency”.
In the past the mogul has even suggested giving her a cabinet post.
He said: “I can tell you everybody would say, ‘Put Ivanka in, put Ivanka in,’ you know that, right? She’s very popular, she’s done very well.”
More likely, she will have a role working with women and children.
During the race she pushed her dad to come up with a plan for maternity leave and devised adverts to win over suburban women.
In an election when Trump was dogged by groping scandals and accusations of misogyny, Ivanka was described by long-time political consultant Roger Stone as the campaign’s “greatest asset”.
But while Trump might crave his daughter’s counsel in Washington, he will no doubt be reluctant to lose the mother-of-three from her current key role at family real estate firm.
She is the Trump Organization’s Executive Vice President of Development and Acquisitions, spearheading gigantic real estate deals.
The mogul’s two grown-up sons Don Jr, 38 and Eric, 32, also hold executive positions at the company.
But it is Ivanka who is said to be Trump’s favourite and the child he views as the firm’s heir apparent.
From a young age Ivanka occupied a special place in her father’s heart.
And when, as a nine-year-old she found herself at the centre of the blaze of publicity around her father’s divorce from her mother Ivana, she adopted the role of peacemaker.
While eldest brother Don was furious at his father and younger brother Eric was distraught, she set about trying to heal rifts despite being teased at school about the scandal.
She would often call her dad from boarding school and Trump would reportedly put her on speaker phone in the middle of meetings declaring her “the smartest”.
One Trump associate recalled: “The only call Donald would always take was [from] Ivanka.”
Ivanka grew up in the penthouse apartment of Manhattan’s Trump Tower, her bedroom commanding a view of Central Park.
But those who knew her said despite such a gilded existence she kept her feet on the ground.
And she was always determined to forge a career in bricks and mortar like her dad.
In 2003 she appeared in a documentary called Born Rich about the lives of kids born into wealth.
Its producer Dirk Wittenborn remembers being struck by how level-headed Ivanka was and her commitment to the family business.
He added: “Where most of the kids in that movie made fun of their parents, she did not. She obviously loved her father. That was very clear.”
In the film Ivanka says: “Rather than getting Barbie dolls, I always wanted Lego. I love looking at the New York skyline and thinking, ‘What I will add to that?’”
When she finally joined the family business in 2005 after a short spell working for another real estate company, Ivanka threw herself into the job.
And she has managed to dodge accusations of nepotism, earning respect in the cut-throat industry on her own merit.
Michael L. Ashner, who negotiated with her during the Trump Organization’s purchase of a golf course in Miami, said: “She’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever dealt with. She was a thorough, diligent, excellent negotiator.”
Becoming a mother to Arabella, five, Joseph, three, and seven-month-old Theodore did little to slow Ivanka down.
One of her biggest real estate projects in recent years was the purchase of the Old Post Office in Washington DC, just blocks from the White House, which she turned into one of the city’s most luxurious hotels.
She brokered the deal while in hospital giving birth to Arabella and toured the site in a golf buggy just days later.
Indeed, of all Trump’s children it is Ivanka who appears to have inherited her father’s entrepreneurial spirit.
In 2007 she launched her own ranges of jewellery, bags, shoes and a line of affordable clothing aimed at working women.
Her spin-off products have done far better than Trump’s own efforts to launch branded good such as wine, water and cologne.
As a teenager she also enjoyed a modelling career, working for designer brands including Versace — which her dad was still boasting about years later.
In 2003 he told a radio show: “She’s six feet tall, she’s got the best body. She made a lot of money as a model — a tremendous amount.”
In 2006 Trump horrified hosts on talk-show The View when he said: “She does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I would be dating her.”
But sitting beside him Ivanka simply chuckled and clapped. She later claimed modelling was just a way for her to earn spending money and travel the world while at school.
She then quit the to attend top-notch Georgetown University in Washington and later Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania.
Her 2009 marriage to Jared Kushner, 35 — another multi-millionaire property tycoon — called for further intense swotting.
Before their wedding she converted to her husband’s religion of Judaism, before a rigorous process requiring extensive study.
Ivanka has actively embraced her new faith and strictly observes Jewish customs including following a kosher diet and sending her children to religious schools.
The couple also mark the Jewish Sabbath each week, meaning between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday, they stop all work, turn off their phones and computers, and spend time with their children.
Jared seemed the perfect match for Ivanka given they are both the highly driven children of wealthy New York property magnates who followed their famous parents into the business.
Ivanka has joked: “My husband’s idea of a date night somehow always involves me looking at one of his development sites.”
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But while property-obsessed Ivanka never seemed destined for a life in public office, pals say the recent campaigning has awoken an appetite for politics within her.
And this in a country well known for producing political clans such as the Kennedys, Bushes and Clintons.
So some are now wondering if the US could be on the brink of a new political dynasty — with Ivanka next in line to run for power.