Ivanka Trump pulled back the curtain on personal challenges and recalled in an emotional interview how she watched the assassination attempt on her father as it unfolded on television.
In the interview on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast, the first daughter revealed she was at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the day her father, President Donald Trump, was at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.
“I was horrified, and I was scared. And I was protective of my children,” she told podcast host Steven Bartlett, recalling how the televisions by the pool where she was with her children broadcast the unfolding news.
Ivanka Trump says she found out about the assassination attempt on her father from the TVs near the pool at Trump Bedminster, where President Trump was scheduled to meet her family later that evening:
“Two of my children were there, so my first reaction was to turn them away.” pic.twitter.com/hkOV1nB9ac
— johnny maga (@johnnymaga) April 9, 2026
“It was almost real-time. It was before he had stood back up that I had seen what was transpiring. Two of my children were there, so my first reaction was to turn them away,” said the 44-year-old mother of three.
She added that she “knew at that moment” that her father was “fine” and would survive the attack, expressing gratitude that it was a “failed attempt” at taking his life, rather than what could have tragically happened instead.
“I just knew it wasn’t his time,” she said. “I feel incredibly lucky that he was protected that day.”
“You can’t take things for granted in life, and I’ve learned that in numerous ways,” she added, noting the personal challenges that included the attack on her father, as well as her husband Jared Kushner’s battle with cancer, and the loss of her mother, Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana, who passed away in July 2022 at age 73 after a fall.
In recalling her childhood, Ivanka Trump, who served as Advisor to the President during Trump’s first administration, noted that neither of her parents was “absent” and her father always made her feel like she was his “top priority.”
“Never once did he not pick up,” she said, noting how she would call him from a payphone. “Sometimes, his office would be filled with people…and he’d always put me on speakerphone, and start the conversation by telling everyone how I got great grades—and I’d start to blush.”
.@IvankaTrump on growing up with @POTUS:
“Never once did he not pick up [the phone]. Sometimes, his office would be filled with people…and he’d always put me on speakerphone, and start the conversation by telling everyone how I got great grades—and I’d start to blush.” ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ubZYvoZKoB
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 9, 2026
Watch the full interview in the YouTube video below:
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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