Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump are both very important people in Donald Trump’s life, but that’s about where their similarities end. Neither woman is a big fan of the other, and according to reports, petty jabs have been taken on both sides. A former aide of Melania’s even revealed that some fighting words had been exchanged. Keep reading for more information.
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Operation Block Ivanka
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff was a close confidante of Melania Trump throughout the first Trump Administration, and in 2020, she released a memoir shedding light on what went down inside those White House walls. Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship With the First Lady details many instances of Melania and Ivanka not getting along. According to Stephanie, she and Melania had a private initiative they called "Operation Block Ivanka" that sought to make sure Ivanka was hidden from the press during Trump's 2016 inauguration.
"We were able to figure out whose face would be visible when Donald and Melania sat in their seats, and then when the family stood with Chief Justice John Roberts for Donald to take the oath of office," Stephanie wrote. "If Ivanka was not on the aisle, her face would be hidden while she was seated."
The reason for this pettiness? Stephanie claimed Melania summed it up with one six-word text: "You know how they are snakes," Melania allegedly said of Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner.
Melania & Ivanka Butted Heads During First Administration
While Melania was one of the less-involved First Ladies that America has seen, that apparently did not mean she wasn't proud of the title. According to an insider, though Melania may have made it seem like she didn't care, "she was privately obsessed with any mention of herself in the media. It was a role she felt was rightfully hers—and she wasn't going to see Ivanka take it from her!"
However, according to this source, Melania not only felt threatened, but was a bit afraid as well. "She avoided [Ivanka's] East Wing office for the entire presidency for fear she'd run into Ivanka," the source continued.
This was reportedly an issue throughout all of Trump's presidency. Melania was annoyed by Ivanka's presence "in the Oval Office for important discussions," as it prompted the press to talk about her "as if she was first lady," the source explained.
Melania's feelings about the situation weren't unguided, though. According to Katie Rogers, author of American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hilary Clinton to Jill Biden, Ivanka wanted some of that first lady power. When Melania didn't immediately move into the White House when Trump was elected in order to stay with their son, Barron, in New York, Ivanka wanted to turn Melania's office into an area "geared toward serving the entire First Family, not just the First Lady."
And Donald Trump supported this idea. "She was aware that her husband had suggested that his eldest daughter would be helping to share the responsibilities of being First Lady," Rogers continued. "And this was not a development that pleased her."
