What does it all mean?
Donald Trump’s relationship with his family has long been a talking point, with the president known to have a soft spot for his oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Donald and Ivanka’s relationship caused controversy when the 37-year-old former TV personality and socialite was made Assistant to the President – a highly-coveted position – and given a West Wing office, classified information clearance and a government-issued phone.
Coupled with the fact that he once said he would probably be dating Ivanka if she wasn’t his daughter, people tend to find their father-daughter relationship a little odd.
Their relationship seemed to get even weirder last year when Emily Jane Fox’s book, Born Trump, suggested that before she ventured into politics, Ivanka wanted to pursue a career in modelling - something that reportedly prompted Donald to encourage his daughter to get breast implants.
Yes, really.
But this week, it was another book that got everyone talking about the father-daughter relationship, Kushner Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption.
According to Vicky Ward’s book, based on hundreds of interviews, the two are almost uncomfortably close, with Mark Corallo, a former legal spokesperson for Trump, reportedly telling Ward, ‘You can’t have a conversation without him talking about Ivanka.’
The book states that ’Multiple people noticed that [Ivanka would] regularly wander into the Oval Office, often with a child in tow, and talk to Trump in a singsong voice.’ And not only that, apparently ‘He’d call her “baby” or pat her on the bottom.’
The book did however also apparently report the tensions between the two, with Trump reportedly on occasion putting his daughter in her place.
One source recalled a put down from Trump to his daughter after ‘she stormed into [his] office’, with the President reportedly telling her ‘Honey, you sell shoes. Calm down’.
The book has already been disparaged by the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, something Ward responded to by announcing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: ‘If Sarah Huckabee Sanders wants to get into a credibility ratings battle with me, I’ll take her on.’
