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Ivanka Trump has had her manicured fingers in many pies. She’s designed jewellery and shoes. She’s written a book called Women Who Work, marketed at women who work, full of inspirational quotes and touching anecdotes about how she, a woman, has sometimes worked so hard that she has had to sacrifice massages.
That was Early Influencer Ivanka, anyway. Then came Ivanka’s political era. During Donald Trump’s first term as president, she appointed herself Daddy’s special adviser and did a lot of very special advising. In that capacity she gallivanted around the globe, dropping in on the G20 and hobnobbed with world leaders, all while insisting: “I try to stay out of politics.” And, of course, the president’s eldest daughter, who very nearly became the head of the World Bank, tirelessly advocated for women’s economic empowerment.
After her dad’s (brief) fall from grace in 2020, Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, retreated from the public spotlight to a “billionaire bunker” in Florida. Kushner did mysterious things with the large amounts of money that Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern autocracies with dodgy human rights records gave his private equity firm to “manage”; Ivanka, meanwhile, did a bunch of wakeboarding.
But, as Ivanka herself might write, a woman who wakeboards must eventually return to the shore. I’m sure you will be thrilled to hear that a rested and revitalised Ivanka is seemingly ready to throw herself into public service again. Ladies, it looks as if our Patron Saint of Feminism is back to empower us all! This time through our stomachs.
Last Thursday, Ivanka resurfaced in Arkansas to speak at the Heartland Summit, one of a million conferences that seem to exist purely so that extremely rich people can sit around patting one another on the back. The president’s daughter was centre stage with Ariana Huffington, the CEO of Thrive Global, who interviewed her about her mission for tackling food insecurity in the US. In 2023, you see, Ivanka co-founded a “profit-for-purpose” company called Planet Harvest with her friend Melissa Ackerman. According to Axios, the Heartland Summit interview was the first time Ivanka has spoken publicly about her role in the company, which she promises will “reimagine the food supply chain through private-sector innovation”.
I’ll give Ivanka’s new project its due: its attempts to reduce food waste seem noble. Yes, the venture (which talks about food as “medicine”) has some overlaps with Robert F Kennedy Jr’s conspiracy-heavy Make America Healthy Again movement – which has helped bring a number of crunchy moms into the Maga fold. But there are plenty of grifts Ivanka could be involved with: just look at some of the other Trumps, who are now raking it in with a number of extremely dubious cryptocurrency projects.
That said, it’s a little bit rich to be talking about food insecurity in the US when your last name is Trump. I don’t know if Ivanka is aware, but her father’s aggressive federal spending cuts have negatively affected a lot of government-funded food programmes with the same sort of mission as Planet Harvest. Earlier this year, for example, the US Department of Agriculture slashed two programmes that provided more than $1bn for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farms. Which is certainly convenient for private-sector companies such as Planet Harvest: now they can swoop in to innovate.
Obviously Ivanka isn’t responsible for everything her dad does. But Trump does seem to listen to what his favourite daughter says. Eric Trump, in 2017, even boasted that Trump bombed Syria on Ivanka’s behalf because she was “heartbroken and outraged” at the country’s chemical weapons attack. (Ivanka later played down her influence on the strikes.) And while Ivanka may not have an official role in the current administration, various “sources” told CNN in December that Ivanka will “continue to informally advise [Trump] behind the scenes”.
Kushner seems to continue to wield similar influence. In February, the Times of Israel reported that Kushner, who has salivated over the potential of “Gaza’s waterfront property”, was behind Trump’s war crime of a plan for the US to take over Gaza (which, speaking of food insecurity, is on the brink of famine thanks to Israel’s blockade) and clear it of Palestinians.
All this is to say that if Ivanka really gave a damn about food insecurity she would probably have far more impact lobbying her father to change his regressive policies than she will with her “profit-for-purpose” company. But where would be the glory – and the profits – in that?
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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