Ivanka Trump recently admitted she and her family were completely “green” when they came to the White House.
Their family’s past was mainly tied to real estate ventures and reality television. But the night Trump won the presidency in 2016, their entire life changed.
At the time, Ivanka’s fashion brand was making eight figures in annual sales while she was running all real estate acquisitions for the Trump Organization.
“My father started with the presidency, won the presidency, and then said, ‘Hey, I need you,'” Ivanka told podcast host David Senra in the May 31 episode of his “Founders Podcast.”
Those four words were enough to make her and her husband, Jared Kushner, jump up with their two kids and six-month-old to help her father in the White House.
Ivanka admits she’s had a “crazy amount of lived experience” in the private and government sectors.
But now she’s putting that dark reality behind her as she says “the slate is completely clean for me.”
The 44-year-old details the difficult decision to step back from her father’s political world in a revealing interview.
“We put a lot of lead on the board and we left that experience really proud of what we had accomplished,” said Ivanka about the first term. “But we were drinking water through a fire hose. We were learning everything real time.”
“There’s just a lot more coming at me. So, I have to create a lot of boundaries for myself and my day,” Ivanka shared.
She reflected on the criticism she’s received since stepping back, setting boundaries, and making life choices based on her own values rather than on her family’s or public expectations.
“The best thing I did was not just like reconnect old wires and do the things I’d done before because that’s what I knew,” Ivanka shared of her decisions to disconnect following her father’s second term.
She came clean about why leaving Washington ultimately brought her the peace she needed to sleep at night.
“So, I actually made the choice not to go back to our family business, not to restart my fashion brand because I wanted a new adventure and a new experience and I was a different person.”
Trump’s eldest daughter said her time is more focused on setting an “incredibly high bar for the places I’ll commit my energy and time.”
Her comments offered a rare glimpse into the new life she has created in Miami, post-politics, becoming a short-order chef for her kids.
Celebrating with family 🫶🏼🌸 pic.twitter.com/ShqzQhRecT
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) May 27, 2026
Ivanka claims now enjoys splitting mornings with her husband to get the kids ready and drop them off at school, as well as taking time for after-school activities.
“I think the me right now that’s taking different challenges on and they’re no less ambitious but I think the professional part of myself … like that drive, that hunger, that ambition. It’s much more fully integrated into me as a human being than it was when I was 20.”
Ivanka explained that she has no desire to enter the family business again, unlike her brothers, Eric and Donald Jr.
She said her work now is tied to more meaningful matters.
“Everything I’m doing is because it’s something that is like a soul project, you know, something that I’m deeply inspired by,” said Ivanka.
Her latest inspiration project includes building a massive off-the-grid private island in the middle of the Mediterranean with her husband, who serves as a special envoy for her father, representing the United States in diplomatic missions around the world in between striking business deals with foreign leaders and business entities.
Ivanka Trump announces that she and her husband, Jared Kushner, are building a massive off-the-grid private island in the middle of the Mediterranean.
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) June 2, 2026
The island spans 1,400 hectares and currently has no power.
They will be working with some of the world's greatest living… pic.twitter.com/0yJqr3nHSw
Jared’s wife insists the island spans 1,400 hectares, currently has no power, and will be “massive in scale.”
As more people learn about the project, some say they’re discovering a side of Ivanka that rarely makes headlines.
Like her father, Ivanka appears drawn to large-scale developments and ambitious real estate plays — though she tends to pursue them far from the political spotlight.
“Wow. I did not realize that Ivanka Trump renovated one of my favorite buildings in D.C., the Old Post Office. Now she’s creating a Mediterranean paradise,” said one person.
Another said, “Wow this is insane. @POTUS daughter IvankaTrump.”
Ivanka and Jared have been married since 2009. They share three kids, Arabella Rose, Joseph Frederick and Theodore James, ranging between the ages of 9 and 14.
