Speaking with hosts on Fox and Friends on Monday, Ivanka Trump shared that she, much like her father, had no idea how President Trump‘s time in office would be received.
When asked about how “things that keep coming up” that take away from her work in the White House, such as the investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election, or her father’s distracting tweets, Trump said she was “blindsided” by how difficult her special advisor role became.
“It is hard. There’s a level of viciousness that I was not expecting. I was not expecting the intensity of this experience. But this isn’t supposed to be easy…” Trump said.
“I think some of the distractions and some of the ferocity I was a little blindsided by on a personal level. But for me, I’m trying to keep my head down, not listen to the noise, and just work really hard to make a positive impact in the lives of many people,” she continued.
During her 13 minutes on Fox News, an appearance excitedly promoted by her father on Twitter, Trump discussed the job market and her first international family trip during her father’s presidency.
While there are enough jobs to fill in the U.S. workforce, she said, people, particularly women and minorities, aren’t trained for STEM jobs and instead are forced to juggle several part-time positions.
“We’re moving in the wrong direction in terms of our participation but that’s something we’ll ultimately need to change,” Trump said.
Host Brian Kilmeade proceeded to commend Trump’s book Women Who Work for breaking down working from “the female perspective,” though the book has been criticized for its poor use of “inspirational quotes,” such as when she quotes Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a book on literal slavery, to make a point on becoming “slaves to time.”
Trump also addressed rumors that her husband and senior advisor Jared Kushner is butting heads with chief strategist and aide Steve Bannon.
“He loves it,” Trump said, answering a question on if Kushner likes his job. “There is a 24-hour news cycle that gets fed by, and is encouraged by, lots of salacious details, but at the end of the day we’re all focused on the work … [Jared] doesn’t get involved in something like that.”
Despite constantly fending off supposed falsities such as the note about Kushner’s Bannon beef, Trump still managed to turn the unexpected “viciousness” into a talking point that framed her as a humble fighter of the American people.
“At the end of the day, if you want to think about difficult, it’s the factory worker who’s been laid off. Difficult is the mother who’s lost a child to opioid abuse,” she said. “So those are the real challenges, and I think that does put it in perspective for me.”
View Ivanka Trump’s full interview with Fox & Friends below:
WATCH part one of @IvankaTrump's exclusive interview on @foxandfriends. pic.twitter.com/DLMlxoxLYI
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 12, 2017
WATCH part two of @IvankaTrump's exclusive interview on @foxandfriends. pic.twitter.com/U0mF6e9vpP
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 12, 2017
H/T the Cut