America’s most powerful couple? Inside Ivanka and Jared’s home life
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's date nights involve looking at properties. Photo: Getty
When Donald Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus appeared on the Today show to talk about the president-elect’s new team, one notable name he mentioned was that of Jared Kushner.
According to Mr Priebus, Mr Kushner, who is married to Mr Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka, will be “very involved in decision-making” for the administration.
Those well-versed in Trump family history will not be surprised by this revelation – Mr Kushner has long been a trusted confidant of his father-in-law, ever since he married Ivanka in 2009.
The New York Times has described Mr Kushner, a real estate developer and owner of The New York Observer newspaper, as Mr Trump’s “de facto campaign manager” and “quiet fixer”. At 35, he has a net worth of more than $US200 million.
Meanwhile, Ms Trump is clearly her father’s trophy child. She works for his company in an office in Trump Tower while running her own successful clothing brand, and was a regular fixture by Mr Trump’s side on the campaign trail – often more so than his wife Melania.
It has been reported that as a teenager Ms Trump would sneak away from nights with friends to visit building sites with her father, and would often use her school lunch break to call him.
It is said Mr Trump would always answer, no matter what.
“She was a very successful model, and she just gave it up and went to Wharton [business school],” a proud Mr Trump told Vogue of his daughter.
“She said, ‘I love real estate’. In the end, she chose the family business. Ivanka is a natural dealmaker. She’ll take this company to great levels.”
Now, that family business includes running the United States of America – something both Ms Trump and Mr Kushner have seemingly been preparing for their entire lives.
When Ivanka Trump was a child, she and her father were inseparable. Photo: Getty
The New York society kids, both 35, were introduced in 2005 by a mutual friend – a real estate broker who initially thought they could develop a strong business relationship.
“They very innocently set us up thinking that our only interest in one another would be transactional,” Ivanka told Vogue in 2015.
“Whenever we see them we’re like, ‘The best deal we ever made!'”
They dated for two years, but split in 2008 due to tensions surrounding Mr Kushner’s Jewish faith – he wanted to marry a Jewish woman.
According to The New Yorker, the pair were reunited by Rupert Murdoch’s then-wife Wendi Deng, who invited both of them to stay on the Murdoch family yacht.
Ultimately, Ms Trump surprised everyone by converting to Orthodox Judaism and taking the Hebrew name Yael before marrying Mr Kushner.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner with Wendi Deng (right), the woman who reunited them after their split. Photo: Getty
The couple follow the laws of the Sabbath, turning their phones off between Friday and Saturday nights to spend valuable family time with their children, Arabella, 5, Joseph, 3, and Theodore, eight months.
Mr Kushner was forced to defend his father-in-law in July this year when Mr Trump tweeted a photo of Hillary Clinton next to the Star of David with the caption: “Most corrupt candidate ever!”
Many accused Mr Trump of anti-Semitism, but the Harvard-educated Mr Kushner vehemently denied this appraisal in an editorial for The New York Observer, titled The Donald Trump I Know.
“My father-in-law is not an anti-Semite,” Mr Kushner wrote, adding he was the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
“It’s that simple, really. Donald Trump is not anti-Semitic and he’s not a racist.
“The difference between me and the journalists and Twitter throngs who find it so convenient to dismiss my father-in-law is simple. I know him and they don’t.”
Mr Kushner (right) has been forced to defend his father-in-law in the past. Photo: Getty
Mr Kushner may be forced to spring into action once again following news Mr Trump has named known anti-Semite Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist in the White House.
However, despite the flurry of media attention surrounding their family, Mr Kushner and Ms Trump seem relatively unfazed by it all.
They enjoy a cushy existence in their modern art-filled Park Avenue apartment, taking regular European holidays and mingling with their many celebrity friends, including (surprisingly) Chelsea Clinton.
The couple holidaying in Hvar, Croatia. Photo: Instagram
The pair keep the romance alive thanks to regular date nights, with Ms Trump boasting to Vogue that she goes out “almost every night with Jared” after work.
A lot of these dates, by her own admission, involve business talk.
“My husband’s idea of a date night somehow always involves me looking at one of his development sites,” she said.
“His own dreams are bold, and I love that in someone,” Ms Trump told the magazine in 2015.
“But he’s incredibly relaxed and calm … Plus it was nice finding someone who is a genuinely good person. I feel really lucky to have met, like, a great New Jersey boy.”
Mr Kushner and Ms Trump with their three children. Photo: Instagram
Meanwhile, Mr Kushner has described his wife as “the CEO of our household”.
“We both pick up slack for each other where it’s needed, but she doesn’t want to outsource mothering, so she’s very involved,” he said.
“There’s not a lot of bullshit in Ivanka’s life. Living through everything that she saw as a kid, she has a very good filter on what’s real, what’s not, what’s worthwhile, and what’s not.”
Although Ms Trump has denied she will be formally involved in her father’s administration, she’s already hinted at some level of involvement.
“I’m going to be a daughter,” she told 60 Minutes of her post-election role.
“I’ve said throughout the campaign that I am very passionate about certain issues. And that I want to fight for them.”
With her father’s ongoing adoration and her husband on her side, there’s little doubt Ms Trump will get to fight for whatever she wants to.
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