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Born on October 30th, 1981, in Manhattan, New York City, Ivana Marie Trump is an American businesswoman and the second child and first daughter of businessman and former U.S. president Donald Trump and his first wife, Czech-American model Ivana Zelníčková. Nicknamed Ivanka since childhood, she attended boarding school Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, and did some modeling during her high school years, appearing on the cover of Seventeen in 1997 and featuring in other fashion magazines and publications.

Ivanka started college in the fall of 2000, going to Georgetown University in Washington D.C. She attended for two years before transferring to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating cum laude in 2004 with a BSc in economics. Before taking up the Executive Vice President of Development & Acquisitions position for the Trump Organization in 2005, Ivanka worked for Forest City Enterprises. Following this, she launched her apparel, jewel and shoe lines. In 2006, Ivanka appeared on her father’s television reality show, The Apprentice, during its fifth season, and returned as  boardroom judge during the sixth season. She was also a judge in the spin-off Celebrity Apprentice. In 2007, she partnered with Dynamic Diamond Corp. to create Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry. The products were to be sold at her flagship retail store in Manhattan.

Aside from her business endeavors, Ivanka has ventured into the publishing world, with the publication of her first book, The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life, a business book based on her experiences, in 2009. Her second self-help book was released in May 2017, titled Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success. In 2012, Ivanka was elected to the board of 100 Women in Hedge Funds, a non-profit organization that aims to strengthen women’s presence in the finance field.

In 2015, when Donald Trump decided to run for the U.S. presidency, Ivanka publicly endorsed him and supported his campaign by attending rallies and defending him. Her father won the election and Ivanka attended the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. Following Trump’s inauguration, Ivanka resigned her position at the Trump Organization and separated herself from her fashion line and business (which had suffered in sales and popularity due to the general dislike for her father,) shutting it down by July 2018. She and her husband, Jared Kushner, relocated to Washington D.C., where they acted as unofficial senior advisors to the president.

In March 2017, Trump was given the official title of “First Daughter and Advisor to the President” and became the head of the newly established Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship—positions for which she received no compensation. As one of the president’s most trusted advisors and a member of his inner circle, Ivanka accompanied her father on many official trips and attended several international summits, meeting with world leaders and prominent figures, although many have questioned the ethics of her involvement in these types of diplomatic trips. In 2020, during her father’s reelection campaign, Ivanka actively participated in the campaign and introduced him at the Republican National Convention. After Donald Trump failed to secure reelection, Ivanka and her husband retired to Florida and launched the Abraham Accords Caucus, an initiative to expand on U.S. relations with Israel and other Middle Eastern countries.

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