Madison Burgess
Ivanka Trump has taken on a surprising new role in partnership with her dad, despite previously vowing to stay away from politics.
The 43-year-old, the eldest daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana, had previously served as a full-time adviser during her father's first term in office, from 2017 to 2021.
However, since he returned to the Oval Office in January, Ivanka has largely kept out of it all and even admitted she 'hates politics'.
In a 2022 Instagram post, she explained: “I love my father very much. This time around I am choosing to prioritise my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics."
Advert
And speaking on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her podcast in January, she doubled down on her plans, adding: "I love policy and impact. I hate politics, and unfortunately, the two are not separable."
However, it seems that the mother-of-three has somewhat had a change of heart as the news broke that she's helping the CEO and President of UFC, Dana White, with his plan to stage a UFC event on the grounds of the White House.
Yes, that's right - a live UFC fight at the White House, which is scheduled to take place next July to mark 250 years since America’s independence.
Trump has become a regular at UFC events and has become close with boss White in recent years, and he first shared the news of the bizarre collaboration last month.
On 4 July, he announced: "We’re going to have a UFC fight – think of this – on the grounds of the White House."
He added: "We have a lot of land there. We are going to build a little – we are not, Dana is going to do it … We are going to have a UFC fight, championship fight, full fight, like 20-25,000 people, and we are going to do that as part of 250 also."
White told Front Office Sports: "I feel really good about how that’s progressing. We’re actually heading (to Washington) at the end of August for meetings about it. Ivanka is also involved in this.
"We’ll be making a presentation and then will look to hear back about what they like about it and don’t like."
In an interview with CBS Mornings, the UFC boss said it is 'definitely happening' and said that Trump had, in fact, requested Ivanka's involvement.
"When he called me and asked me to do it, he [Trump] said, 'I want Ivanka in the middle of this'," White said. "So Ivanka reached out to me, and she and I started talking about the possibilities, where it would be and, you know, I put together all the renderings."
He added that he'll be meeting with Trump and his daughter at the end of the month to finalise some finishing touches.