Ivanka decries DC ‘viciousness’

By JTA

Ivanka Trump said she did not expect the level of “viciousness” her father’s presidency would bring her, but also felt “blessed” by moments, including a private visit to the Western Wall.

“There is a level of viciousness that I was not expecting, I was not expecting the intensity of this experience,” she said Monday morning on “Fox and Friends” on the Fox News Channel.

Ivanka Trump, an unpaid aide in President Trump’s White House, said she has come under fire from the left for claiming to bring progressive values to the White House, including on LGBT and women’s rights, while her father rolls back some gains in these areas. She praised her father and her husband, Jared Kushner, another unpaid White House aide, for the successes of Trump’s first foreign tour as president last month, to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian areas, and the Vatican.

Trump said her visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem was one of many “surreal” moments since her father assumed the presidency.

“It was the first time a sitting president was at the Western Wall and visited the Kotel,” she said. “I feel truly blessed and privileged to have been there.”