As American businessman and former President Donald Trump steps back into the Oval Office to become the 47th president of the United States, marking his second time as the country’s top leader, his family is back in the spotlight.
The 78-year-old president-elect is set to take his oath during the swearing-in ceremony at noon ET Monday at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
Among those family members being thrust back into public focus are Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, but you may not be seeing as much of them for Trump’s second term in office.
The couple, who served as senior advisers to the president-elect during his first term, were largely absent during his presidential campaign, and Ivanka has already shared more about her plans for her father’s second term. They did make an appearance on stage with Trump during his victory celebration in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Ivanka later joined her father in December as he rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange, to commemorate being named Time’s 2024 Person of the Year.
Who is Ivanka Trump? Here’s what to know about Trump’s oldest daughter and former advisor as the family steps back into the White House.
Ivanka, 43, is Trump’s eldest daughter and second child with his first and late ex-wife, Ivana Trump, who died of accidental blunt impact injuries to her torso at her home in New York City in July 2022.
Ivanka has two siblings − Donald Trump Jr., 46, Eric Trump, 40 − and two half-siblings Tiffany Trump, 31, and Barron Trump, 18.
Before Ivanka joined the White House as a senior adviser, the Wharton graduate served as an executive vice president at the Trump Organization until January 2017 and had several entrepreneurial ventures of her own, including an eponymous fashion label she founded in 2014 and shut down in 2018.
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, tied the knot in October 2009 after dating for two years, according to a 2015 interview she did with Vogue. They were set up by mutual friends for business, which quickly blossomed into romance, she told Vogue.
Ivanka and Jared were also among Trump’s closest advisers during his first term but stepped away from politics after his defeat in 2020. Kushner now runs a $3 billion private equity fund and works closely with the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and with Taiwanese billionaire and founder of Foxconn Terry Gou, according to a report in the New York Times.
Fun fact: Ivanka and Jared also appeared in an episode of “Gossip Girl” Season 4.
Ivanka and Jared share three children: Arabella Rose, 13, Joseph Frederick, 11, and Theodore James, 8.
Ivanka converted to Judaism after her wedding with Kushner, whose family is Orthodox, according to the 2015 Vogue profile.
When Trump began his third bid for the White House nearly two years ago, Ivanka Trump announced that she and Kushner did “not plan to be involved in politics” and were instead prioritizing their children and family life. She also did not attend her father’s campaign announcement in November 2022.
“I love my father very much,” she shared on Instagram after her father made his announcement. “This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family.”
Now that her father is about to be president, Ivanka says she will continue to stay out of the limelight and just “show up for him as a daughter and be there for him.”
“I think I’m most looking forward to just being able to show up for him as a daughter and be there for him, to take his mind off things, to watch a movie with him, or watch a sports game, to know that he can be with me and be himself and just relax and for me to be able to provide that for him and in a very loving way as his daughter,” Ivanka said in a recent appearance on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast.
Calling the presidency the “world’s loneliest position,” Ivanka said there is a “darkness” to the world of politics that she doesn’t “really want to welcome into mine.”
“Everyone’s passionate about something, and they all want to spend the short time they have with you, selling you on what they think is something good and positive and productive for this country and the world,” Ivanka said during the podcast. “It is a very lonely perch, and I would often think about this during the first four years, but now I’m having a little distance from it.”
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
