Featured Image Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
On 13 July 2024, Ivanka Trump had been watching a television broadcast of her father hosting a Republican rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump had been nearing the end of his Presidential campaign against Democratic leader Kamala Harris, giving a speech about border crossings.
He turned his head to refer to a chart showing alleged illegal immigration numbers.
Suddenly, the sound of gunfire rang out, and swarms of special agents dove to the stage to protect the right-wing leader, who sustained a gunshot wound to the ear, his blood splashing across his face.
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This horror, his eldest daughter, Ivanka, had watched from her family's Bedminster, New Jersey golf club in 'almost-real time'.
This week, the 44-year-old recalled the vividness of the assassination attempt against her father, regarded as Trump's closest call yet.
"There was a lot of commotion. The televisions were on, so I saw it almost immediately," Ivanka told Diary of a CEO podcast host, Steven Bartlett.
"It was before he had stood back up that I had seen what was transpiring, and two of my children were there [with me].
"My first reaction was to turn them away. It was incredibly difficult."
Trump, 79, had been targeted by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who'd fired eight rounds from an AR-15-style rifle from the roof of a nearby building, one of which killed an audience member. Two other Republican attendees were also critically injured.
Brooks was shot and killed by a member of the US Secret Service, but not before one of his bullets grazed Trump's upper-right ear.
Oddly, however, after the initial shock of the situation subsided, Ivanka insisted she refused to allow herself to panic.
"Interestingly, I knew in real time in that moment that he was fine," she claimed. "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."
Ivanka and her husband, political adviser and businessman Jared Kushner, 45, who'd also watched the gory drama play out, waited up until the politician returned home after receiving treatment in the hospital.
"I just feel incredibly lucky that he was protected on that day," the mother-of-three gushed. "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 realised one. 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."
Asked how she feels about Crooks' attempt on her father's life, Ivanka explained: "There’s a lot of sickness there, and I think that forgiveness is a difficult thing in this regard - but [my father] living is a blessing."
With this in mind, she claimed she holds no resentment.
"What does that accomplish, being negative towards the world?" Ivanka asked. "I think that brings more negativity into the world. I could look at what happened and be rightfully traumatised by the experience, and nobody could really argue with that, but you have to move through it."
She concluded: "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."