Ivanka Trump has spoken out against why she will not be rejoining her father, President-elect Donald Trump, in the White House — and it’s because she hates politics.
“I love policy and impact. I hate politics. And unfortunately, the two are not separable,” Mr. Trump’s eldest daughter said Tuesday in an episode of the Skinny Confidential podcast “Him & Her Show.”
“There is a darkness to that world that I don’t really want to welcome into mine,” Ms. Trump said. “To some degree, I’m at the center of the storm because my father is about to be president, but it’s a very, very dark, negative business.”
She said the “main reason I am not going back to serve now is I know the cost, and it’s a price that I’m not willing to make my kids bear.”
Both Ms. Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, held positions in the first Trump administration. Ms. Trump served as a senior adviser and director of the Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship. Mr. Kushner also served as a senior adviser.
She said this time around she is thinking about ways she can support her father “because I know what the job is like in a very personal way having been by his side for four years and it’s the world’s loneliest position, the enormity of the decisions you’re making on a daily basis, how transactional everyone is with you.”
“I’m most looking forward to 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 or watch a sports game to know that he can be with me and be himself and just relax,” Ms. Trump said.
She said she loved “the impact, especially as time went on,” of having a role in the White House.
“Hopefully I’ll live a life that continues to be impactful regardless of where I do it,” she said. “I went through years of craziness, and I’ve never become cynical about the fundamental goodness of people.”
Mr. Kushner first mentioned in October that his wife and he wouldn’t be joining Mr. Trump’s White House.
When asked by The New York Times if there was any chance Ivanka would be showing her face on the campaign trail, Mr. Kushner said “zero.”
“[Ivanka] made the decision when she left Washington that she was closing that chapter of her life. And she’s been remarkably consistent,” he said.
Ms. Trump said in the interview that her “primary goals were just be the best freaking mom I could be.”
“Every time I had to miss something, I’m like I will never let this happen again the minute I leave the White House,” she said.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.