Ivanka Trump was interviewed by Steven Barlett on the Thursday, April 9, episode of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast. During the interview, she was asked about her reaction to the July 2024 assassination attempt on her father, Donald Trump and whether she can forgive the shooter. Ivanka also broke down during the episode while talking about her mother Ivana’s death. Ivana Trump died at the age of 73 on July 14, 2022.
During the interview, Ivanka recalled how she got the news of her father, who was shot in the ear on July 13, 2024, in an assassination attempt. Donald Trump, 79, survived the shooting at an open-air rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The President was at the rally, campaigning for a second term, when it happened. Thomas Crooks, 20, who made the assassination attempt, was shot and killed by Secret Service as everyone at the rally panicked.
“I was in Bedminster, New Jersey. There was a lot of commotion. The televisions were on, so I saw it almost immediately. It was almost real time,” Ivanka, 44, said on the Thursday, April 9, episode of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast.
Ivanka went on to explain that two of her children were with her in Bedminster when the news broke. Ivanka shares her daughter Arabella, 15, and sons Joseph, 12, and Theodore, 10, with husband Jared Kushner.
“It was before he had stood back up that I had seen what was transpiring, and two of my children were there. My first reaction was to turn them away. It was incredibly difficult,” Ivanka said.
.@IvankaTrump on growing up with @POTUS:
“Never once did he not pick up [the phone]. Sometimes, his office would be filled with people…and he’d always put me on speakerphone, and start the conversation by telling everyone how I got great grades—and I’d start to blush.” ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ubZYvoZKoB
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 9, 2026
While the events following the shooting were stressful, Ivanka said she managed to handle the situation as she watched in real time, saying, “Interestingly, I knew in real time in that moment that he was fine. I just knew it wasn’t his time. I was horrified and scared and protective of my children, but I also didn’t believe the worst possible outcome had transpired. And thank God it hadn’t.”
After the shooting at the campaign rally, Ivanka, 44, explained that she and her husband Kushner, 45, waited up that night for Donald Trump to return to the family residence in Bedminster after leaving the hospital.
“I saw him that night when he came home from the hospital because he was also staying [in Bedminster],” she said. “It was late, like, 1, 2 o’clock in the morning. Jared and I stayed up, and we met his car as he was pulling in. I just feel incredibly lucky that he was protected on that day. You can’t take things for granted, and I’ve learned that in numerous ways, that being one of them.”
“We were so fortunate that day that this was a failed attempt to take his life, not a realized one,” Ivanka added. “But you sort of recommit to love and connection and to a recognition of how short our time here on Earth is and how you have to value it.”
The podcast host, Bartlett, then asked her how a terrifying experience like the assassination attempt on her father didn’t make her “negative to the world.”
Ivanka replied, saying, “‘Cause I don’t allow it to. What does that accomplish, being negative towards the world? I think that brings more negativity into the world.”
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Enjoy full Episode on Spice:🎧 https://t.co/sz0HqGQdjL pic.twitter.com/cqk0gVP1Ut
— AskSpice (@SpiceShorts) April 9, 2026
Speaking of the shooter, Crooks, Donald Trump’s daughter said, “There’s a lot of sickness there and I think that forgiveness is a difficult thing in this regard … but [Trump’s] living is a blessing.”
“So I could look at what happened and be rightfully traumatized by the experience, and nobody could really argue with that, but you have to move through it,” she said of choosing to remain positive.
“And on the opposite side of that is the fact that he’s with us today, that he didn’t die, that my father’s alive. That is an extraordinary blessing for me as his daughter. In life, you only have a choice only in how you respond, and I choose to see the positive outcome that transpired and dwell there,” Ivanka Trump added.
