Ivanka Trump's Biggest Parenting Controversies

Ivanka Trump has had several controversial moments over the years. The former first daughter will perhaps forever be known for her stint as one of her father, Donald Trump's, White House advisers. But ever since Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, departed D.C. for their new home in Florida, motherhood has become her priority. The Kushners' three children — Arabella Rose, Joseph Frederick, and Theodore "Theo" James — are growing up fast, and she is determined to be there for them. 

In a 2022 interview with Fox News, Ivanka made it clear that she had no intention of participating in Donald's 2024 re-election campaign. "I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family," she explained, adding, "I am loving this time with my kids, loving life in Miami and the freedom and privacy with having returned to the private sector." Still, even the best mothers are subject to mom-shaming these days, and Ivanka is no exception. 

In particular, some of her parenting choices have brought out the online critics. The snarks and outrage don't seem to affect Ivanka thankfully; when you're a Trump, you quickly learn to develop a thick skin. Still, one wonders whether she ever looks back (as we all do) and thinks: Yeah, I probably should have done that differently. These are just a few of the incidents the former first daughter might be second-guessing today.

With her family's move to Miami, Ivanka Trump and her kids have ample opportunity to socialize with her parents, brothers, and sister. The Kushners and Trumps have gathered together for plenty of joyful occasions, such as Arabella's bat mitzvah, and more somber ones, such as the funeral of Ivanka's mother, Ivana Trump. But one particular uncle-nephew outing was met with more "ewws" than "awws."  

In December 2020, Ivanka posted photos on Instagram of her older brother, Donald Trump Jr., teaching Joseph and Theo the fine art of sporting clays shooting (a sport similar to skeet shooting). In one pic, Don Jr. helped Theo, then four, fire a rifle almost bigger than he was. "Bustin' clays with Uncle Don!" Ivanka captioned the pics. Despite the visible safety precautions — eye and ear protection, protective vests, and Don Jr.'s control over the weapons — the post raised concerns about Ivanka letting her small children be around firearms at all (at least one South Florida gun range forbids children under 10 to enter their range, even with adult supervision; another has a minimum age of 8).

The post also called to mind Don Jr.'s controversial hobby of hunting wildlife in Africa, including elephants and cheetahs. Despite his assurances that he respects animals and gives the meat to local villagers, Don Jr. and his brother, Eric Trump, have consistently come under fire for posing proudly with their trophies. "Next stop: slaughtering endangered species on random safaris to compensate for lack of true manlihood," quipped one commenter. 

Moms learn early on to develop eyes in the back of their heads, the better to spot any kid mischief before it happens. Sometimes, however, even that isn't enough to keep a near-disaster from happening. Ivanka Trump learned this the hard way in January 2020, when a moment of distraction resulted in a near-escape. She and her family had just landed in Washington on Air Force One after spending the holidays at then-President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Her son Theo, then three, tried making a run for the exit door, but a Secret Service agent with quick reflexes fortunately caught him just in time.

Rather than keeping quiet about the incident, Ivanka posted about it on Instagram as a show of solidarity with fellow moms. "Theo busted attempting a stealth exit from AF1 while I was distracted prying melted M&Ms out of my daughter's hands," she wrote. "Thanks to the US Secret Service I narrowly avoided a major parenting fail!" She even thanked the unnamed photographers "who busted my boy in action!"

While some followers sympathized with comments like "How cute!" and "Classic Theo so funny!" others were less amused. "I'm glad our [Secret Service] is now a babysitter for your snotty nosed 2-year-old and his M&M eating sister," one snarked. Another joked, "If Trump was on that plane, who wouldn't want to escape?"

In February 2023, Ivanka Trump "got the call from the school nurse that every parent dreads," as she recounted on Instagram. Once again, young Theo was involved; while playing soccer, he sustained a broken wrist. Neither parent was home at the time, but they both hurried to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital to meet their son as an ambulance brought him in. Theo was a brave patient and emerged with a cast on his arm and not one, but two ice pops (prompting the youngster to proclaim it was "the best day ever.") 

Expressing her gratitude to the hospital staff, Ivanka confirmed that she and her husband, Jared Kushner, had made a donation to the facility and included a link for followers to do the same. Fellow parents offered good wishes for a speedy recovery and shared their own kid-emergency stories, but others weren't as sympathetic. Detractors took issue with Ivanka's call for donations, which sounded too much like an advertisement. 

Likewise, not every family can afford to call an ambulance or even pay for quality healthcare. A few also felt Ivanka had blown the incident way out of proportion. "Always difficult when your child suffers any injury, and I hope Theo has a quick recovery, but honestly, 'Ivanka Trump receives the phone call no parent wants to hear'?" wrote one. "I don't think this would have garnered nearly as much attention if Theo's last name hadn't been Trump. The Trump family is not royalty."

One of the most problematic issues for Donald Trump during his presidency was the then-commander-in-chief's handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Despite early warnings that the coronavirus had the potential to become a pandemic, Donald assured the public that the virus was "very much under control" in February 2020 (via NPR). By mid-April, nearly a million people had been infected and the death toll was steadily climbing. Still, the president waffled on decisions such as social distancing and lockdowns, leaving decisions up to individual states and praising the few state governors, like Florida's Ron DeSantis, who kept schools open.

School policies proved problematic for then-first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, too. Their three children had been enrolled in a Jewish day school in D.C. prior to the pandemic, but in November 2020, they abruptly transferred Arabella, Joseph, and Theo to another religious day school in Maryland. Supposedly, they made the switch because the new school was returning to in-person learning, but the Jewish Telegraphic Agency tells a different story. 

Sources informed the outlet that the Kushners were actually catching heat from fellow parents for flouting the Washington school's COVID protocols by attending White House ceremonies and openly attending campaign events unmasked.  It will be interesting to hear the younger Kushners' reactions in a few years. Will they recall being resentful about being uprooted from their school friends, or glad their parents took a stand and got them back into the classroom?