Ivanka Trump has decided to bow out of US politics and not actively join her father’s bid to retake the White House in 2024, saying she had chosen “to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family”.
Donald Trump launched his 2024 bid for the Republican nomination on Tuesday night at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Members of his family, including his wife, Melania, and son Eric were present. Even Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner, was in attendance. But Ivanka was not.
In a statement, Ivanka Trump said: “I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics.”
She added: “While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena. I am grateful to have had the honor of serving the American people and will always be proud of many of our administration’s accomplishments.”
Ivanka Trump and Kushner played key roles in Trump’s administration and became a lightning rod for anger at many of its excesses, in part due to their previous lives as mainstays of Manhattan’s elite social scene, which is heavily Democratic.
Since Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, Ivanka Trump and her family have moved to an expensive mansion in Florida.
She recently testified before the January 6 committee, the special congressional panel investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol in 2021 in which extremist supporters of Trump attempted to overturn his election defeat.
Ivanka Trump was with her father in the White House that day and is one of more than 800 witnesses the committee has interviewed. Congressman Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, described her testimony as not “chatty” but helpful.