august 5–18, 2019 | new york 79argued for D.C., saying they needed to pro-
tect her father, and, by the way, now
anything—everything!—was theirs for the
taking. At their synagogue, at least a few
people began referring to Ivanka, the first
Jewish member of an American First Fam-
ily, by a new nickname, that of a savior.
Grisham confirms that they called her
Esther, after the beautiful Jewish wife of a
Persian king who convinced him to cancel
an order to annihilate the Jews.In d.c., “hollywood for ugly
people,” Ivanka impressed some at the
outset with her star power. Senators
stopped her in the hall to take selfies,
and, once she took on a political portfolio,
Republicans clamored for her to bring at-
tention to their pet issues. Those around her
felt the public vitriol immediately directed
her way was unfair: “If you had a weak
leader in a Democratic administration and
a 35-year-old mother of three in there trying
to make a difference, it would be seen as in-
credible, but because she’s Donald’s daugh-
ter, everyone says it’s disgusting,” says a for-
mer colleague. Several people I talked to
who are close to her argued it’s anti-feminist
to blame a daughter for the sins of the father,
as though Ivanka weren’t in the White
House only because of her father. “Ivanka
Trump didn’t pick Donald Trump to be her
father,” says Scaramucci. “On her own, she’s
an extremely gifted person—smart, great
energy, a great sense of style and taste.” How
is she on policy? “Is she a policy wonk? No,
but the president’s more of a commonsense
person than a policy wonk himself. And
you’ve had 40 years of policy wonks who
basically destroyed the country.”
New York liberals may have turned
against her first, but the anger has just
ramped up from there, much of it over the
shock that she has not folded up shop as her
father careens out of control. Since he didn’t
listen to her on issues like climate change
and abortion, she stopped trying, telling
friends behind the scenes, “I have no control
over him” or “I can’t believe people think
I can control him” or, sometimes, “My father
has never listened to me about—anything!”
The day-to-day cognitive dissonance for her
in this new role is extreme: She was in the
White House, but her father, ever the chau-
vinist, still called her “Baby” in meetings.
And while she tries to remain in a narcis-
sistic cocoon—on Instagram, she follows not
one, not two, but 35 fan accounts, flooding
her feed with love—she must also have
regrets. “She has a bitterness she never had
before,” says a friend. “You see it in her eyes
and in her brow. She has a sense of spite.”
Instead, she seems to have become more
aggressive about taking what she may
believe is rightfully hers, from a securityclearance to using personal email to Chi-
nese trademarks for her businesses to rent-
ing her mansion in D.C. from a Chilean
businessman who then received permission
to mine near a previously protected area of
Minnesota. The power of her office is so
massive no one can stop her. “Ethics rules
are intended to be prophylactic—when all
of them were being written after Watergate,
people thought that no one would just come
in and say, ‘Make me,’ ” says Arthur Lopez, a
former federal-government ethics official.
We don’t know how many deals she has
made for herself abroad, though reports
come in from time to time that Israeli
intelligence, Chinese intelligence, Saudi
intelligence, and who knows who else are
targeting Ivanka and Jared, trying to figure
out what they’d want in exchange for favor-
ing their countries.
The U.S. government, in Donald’s
hands, is still a family business, and he’s
going to run it as he likes, which means
that everyone is disposable except the
family. And Ivanka, more than anyone
else, knows how to handle him: flatter
him, tell him what he wants to hear. He’s
as moody and nonsensically theatrical as
a 6-year-old, but the mood will always
pass. She’s playing the long game. “The
jury’s still out” on how she’ll be perceived
historically, says Anita McBride, chief of
staff for Laura Bush. “The rules are being
rewritten by the Trump administration.
We’re not used to family members with all
the benefits of being members of the
White House staff. Plus they have what
every member of a staff wants: access.”
So—what’s next? In the coming months,
Ivanka will continue her global trips and
attempt to secure wins on her policy con-
cerns, like parental leave, but she will really
be looking ahead. With little understanding
of social justice and her lifelong aversion to
those with less money than she has (always
seeking to align herself with those who have
more), domestic policy may not be her bag.
In addition to the World Bank, the vice-
presidency, and the presidency, her name
has been floated for U.N. ambassador, the
position Nikki Haley vacated and a job
friends say would interest her. She spent
many years cultivating a polished place for
herself in the New York social elite—
imagining herself on the right boards and at
the right parties with the right friends, the
problematic Trump family reputation laun-
dered through the usual parade of heiress
tastefulness. But if there wasn’t really any
audience for that kind of performance
anymore—from her old friends and those
right ones—well, fuck ’em. Becoming an
American princess projecting her elegance
abroad wasn’t that different, and besides,
there was probably more money in it nowanyway. The Trumps may have kneecapped
the American republic and its reputation
abroad, but they have somehow managed
along the way to achieve an even more
improbable-seeming goal: to become roy-
alty, bending the whole image of a nation in
their likeness and forcing their way onto the
world stage.
Of course, even royalty has to live some-
where, and Ivanka’s friends in New York are
fewer and fewer. She breaks bread with
New York’s groovy tech Jews, like WeWork’s
Adam Neumann, and old people, like
Stephen Schwarzman; among the Holly-
wood yachting set, David Geffen still
accepts her. After she leaves D.C., her life
could be about swanning around with these
few folks, Kim and Kanye, and the Saudis—
managing, say, a $100 billion real-estate
portfolio for Mohammed bin Salman. Or,
like most people when they have lost some-
thing they really wanted, she may start a
scrappy climb back to respectability. The
Kennedy School will take her in a hot min-
ute; maybe her course will be called “Ethics
and Decision-Making.” Memories are short,
and money talks. She’ll surely get a sinecure
somewhere if she wants it, whether it’s her
money or someone else’s. “If Ivanka and
Jared get the Saudis to donate $50 million
to the Met, they’ll put Jared on the board,”
says society arbiter Bob Colacello.
But friends seem to think Ivanka won’t
come home to New York after Washington—
she’s too thin-skinned for that, too likely to
be hurt by slights. And she probably
wouldn’t want to. She could live in Israel,
though that would likely feel like small
potatoes, but the clearest move for her is
probably Florida, where she could run as a
Republican if she wanted to take political
office, a snowbird making trips up to Man-
hattan for the Met Ball and other events.
She’d be surrounded by her family and
friends in the glamour of Palm Beach, nary
an underprivileged person in sight.
Some of these choices, they say, will be
determined by just how real the threat of
indictments seems—it might push her per-
manently abroad. And there’s the question
of what will happen when Donald passes
away. The tragedy of Ivanka, friends say, is
her inability to resolve her relationship
with her father, and once the relationship
is gone, an entirely new person may
emerge. “Ivanka never got to an indepen-
dent adult sense of consciousness,” one
says, “where she’s separate from him and
‘I don’t need it.’ It has always been ‘I need
it.’ ” To change this state of things would be
radical. “All it would take is Donald going
to Ivanka and saying, ‘Whatever you do, I
admire you and I love you.’ Except he would
never come to her saying that. And she
would have to believe him.” ■Y ___ DD ___ AD ___ PD ___ EICTRANSMITTED
________ COPY ___ DD ___ AD ___ PD ___ EIC1619FEA_Ivanka_lay [Print]_35541681.indd 79 8/2/19 5:51 PMaugust 5–18, 2019 | new york 79argued for D.C., saying they needed to pro-
tect her father, and, by the way, now
anything—everything!—was theirs for the
taking. At their synagogue, at least a few
people began referring to Ivanka, the first
Jewish member of an American First Fam-
ily, by a new nickname, that of a savior.
Grisham confirms that they called her
Esther, after the beautiful Jewish wife of a
Persian king who convinced him to cancel
an order to annihilate the Jews.I
n d.c., “hollywood for ugly
people,” Ivanka impressed some at the
outset with her star power. Senators
stopped her in the hall to take selfies,
and, once she took on a political portfolio,
Republicans clamored for her to bring at-
tention to their pet issues. Those around her
felt the public vitriol immediately directed
her way was unfair: “If you hada weak
leader in a Democratic administration and
a 35-year-old mother of three in there trying
to make a difference, it would be seen as in-
credible, but because she’s Donald’s daugh-
ter, everyone says it’s disgusting,” says a for-
mer colleague. Several people I talked to
who are close to her argued it’s anti-feminist
to blame a daughter for the sins of the father,
as though Ivanka weren’t in the White
House only because of her father.“Ivanka
Trump didn’t pick Donald Trump to be her
father,” says Scaramucci. “On her own, she’s
an extremely gifted person—smart, great
energy, a great sense of style and taste.” How
is she on policy? “Is she a policy wonk? No,
but the president’s more of a commonsense
person than a policy wonk himself. And
you’ve had 40 years of policy wonks who
basically destroyed the country.”
New York liberals may have turned
against her first, but the anger has just
ramped up from there, much of it over the
shock that she has not folded up shop as her
father careens out of control. Since he didn’t
listen to her on issues like climatechange
and abortion, she stopped trying, telling
friends behind the scenes, “I have no control
over him” or “I can’t believe people think
I can control him” or, sometimes, “My father
has never listened to me about—anything!”
The day-to-day cognitive dissonance for her
in this new role is extreme: She was in the
White House, but her father, ever the chau-
vinist, still called her “Baby” in meetings.
And while she tries to remain in a narcis-
sistic cocoon—on Instagram, she follows not
one, not two, but 35 fan accounts, flooding
her feed with love—she must also have
regrets. “She has a bitterness she never had
before,” says a friend. “You see it in s
and in her brow. She has a sense of
Instead, she seems to have become more
aggressive about taking what she may
believe is rightfully hers, from asecurityclearance to using personal email to Chi-
nese trademarks for her businesses to rent-
ing her mansion in D.C. from a Chilean
businessman who then received permission
to mine near a previously protected area of
Minnesota. The power of her office is so
massive no one can stop her. “Ethics rules
are intended to be prophylactic—when all
of them were being written after Watergate,
people thought that no one would just come
in and say, ‘Make me,’ ” says Arthur Lopez, a
former federal-government ethics official.
We don’t know how many deals she has
made for herself abroad, thoughreports
come in from time to time that Israeli
intelligence, Chinese intelligence, Saudi
intelligence, and who knows whoelse are
targeting Ivanka and Jared, trying to figure
out what they’d want in exchange for favor-
ing their countries.
The U.S. government, in Donald’s
hands, is still a family business, and he’s
going to run it as he likes, which means
that everyone is disposable except the
family. And Ivanka, more thananyone
else, knows how to handle him: flatter
him, tell him what he wants to hear. He’s
as moody and nonsensically theatrical as
a 6-year-old, but the mood willalways
pass. She’s playing the long game. “The
jury’s still out” on how she’ll be perceived
historically, says Anita McBride,chief of
staff for Laura Bush. “The rules are being
rewritten by the Trump administration.
We’re not used to family memberswith all
the benefits of being members of the
White House staff. Plus they have what
every member of a staff wants: access.”
So—what’s next? In the coming months,
Ivanka will continue her global trips and
attempt to secure wins on her policy con-
cerns, like parental leave, but she will really
be looking ahead. With little understanding
of social justice and her lifelong aversion to
those with less money than she has(always
seeking to align herself with those who have
more), domestic policy may not beher bag.
In addition to the World Bank, the vice-
presidency, and the presidency, her name
has been floated for U.N. ambassador, the
position Nikki Haley vacated and a job
friends say would interest her. She spent
many years cultivating a polished place for
herself in the New York socialelite—
imagining herself on the right boards and at
the right parties with the right friends, the
problematic Trump family reputation laun-
dered through the usual parade of heiress
tastefulness. But if there wasn’t really any
audience for that kind of performance
anymore—from her old friends and those
right ones—well, fuck ’em. Becoming an
American princess projecting her elegance
abroad wasn’t that different, andbesides,
there was probably more money in it nowanyway. The Trumps may have kneecapped
the American republic and its reputation
abroad, but they have somehow managed
along the way to achieve an even more
improbable-seeming goal: to become roy-
alty, bending the whole image of a nation in
their likeness and forcing their way onto the
world stage.
Of course, even royalty has to live some-
where, and Ivanka’s friends in New York are
fewer and fewer. She breaks bread with
New York’s groovy tech Jews, like WeWork’s
Adam Neumann, and old people, like
Stephen Schwarzman; among the Holly-
wood yachting set, David Geffen still
accepts her. After she leaves D.C.,her life
could be about swanning around with these
few folks, Kim and Kanye, and the Saudis—
managing, say, a $100 billion real-estate
portfolio for Mohammed bin Salman. Or,
like most people when they have lost some-
thing they really wanted, she may start a
scrappy climb back to respectability. The
Kennedy School will take her in a hot min-
ute; maybe her course will be called “Ethics
and Decision-Making.” Memories are short,
and money talks. She’ll surely get a sinecure
somewhere if she wants it, whether it’s her
money or someone else’s. “If Ivanka and
Jared get the Saudis to donate $50 million
to the Met, they’ll put Jared on the board,”
says society arbiter Bob Colacello.
But friends seem to think Ivanka won’t
come home to New York after Washington—
she’s too thin-skinned for that, toolikely to
be hurt by slights. And she probably
wouldn’t want to. She could live in Israel,
though that would likely feel like small
potatoes, but the clearest move for her is
probably Florida, where she couldrun as a
Republican if she wanted to take political
office, a snowbird making trips up to Man-
hattan for the Met Ball and other events.
She’d be surrounded by her family and
friends in the glamour of Palm Beach, nary
an underprivileged person in sight.
Some of these choices, they say, will be
determined by just how real the threat of
indictments seems—it might pushher per-
manently abroad. And there’s the question
of what will happen when Donald passes
away. The tragedy of Ivanka, friends say, is
her inability to resolve her relationship
with her father, and once the relationship
is gone, an entirely new person may
emerge. “Ivanka never got to an indepen-
dent adult sense of consciousness,” one
says, “where she’s separate from him and
‘I don’t need it.’ It has always been ‘I need
it.’ ” To change this state of things would be
radical. “All it would take is Donald going
to Ivanka and saying, ‘Whatever you do, I
admire you and I love you.’ Except he would
never come to her saying that. And she
would have to believe him.” ■