Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Reportedly Refused to Defend Trump Against Antisemitism Claims

A new book about Donald Trump’s political comeback contains one of the most revealing accounts yet of how dramatically Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have stepped back from her father’s world — and what happened when the campaign came looking for their help.
The Book and the Claim
In 2025, veteran Trump chronicler Michael Wolff published All or Nothing, described by its publisher as a broad inside look at Trump’s political comeback covering legal troubles, assassination attempts, campaign drama, and his eventual return to the White House.
Among the book’s most discussed revelations is an account of a moment during the 2024 campaign when Trump faced accusations of antisemitism following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. According to Wolff, Trump struggled to deliver what many considered a clear and unwavering show of support for Israel — a perception that reportedly created serious concern within his campaign team.
The campaign, according to Wolff’s account, turned to the most obvious solution: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, both of whom are Jewish, and both of whom had served as senior advisors during Trump’s first term. The initial ask was for Kushner to issue a public statement backing Trump and rejecting the antisemitism accusations outright.
Kushner reportedly declined repeatedly. When the campaign lowered its expectations and sought only a simple statement declaring that Trump was not antisemitic, Kushner’s answer, as quoted in reports about the book, was: “No, Ivanka and I aren’t going to do that. We’re not going to go and put our names on something and get in the middle of things. That’s just not what we’re going to do this time.”
That final phrase — this time — underscored what the episode revealed: that the couple’s relationship with Trump’s political operation had fundamentally changed since the years when Ivanka stood at the center of it.
From Senior Advisor to Deliberate Distance
Ivanka Trump’s involvement in her father’s first presidency was total. She served as a senior White House advisor without pay, traveled with him throughout the 2016 campaign, and became one of the most recognizable faces of his administration — delivering a high-profile speech at the Republican National Convention and taking on a public role that blurred the lines between family and government.
“My life is chaotic right now,” she told People Magazine in 2020. “I’m exhausted 90 percent of the time. Being a mother is the most rewarding experience, but also the most wild and stressful.”
After Trump’s first term ended, Ivanka made a deliberate choice to withdraw from Washington life entirely. She moved to Florida with Kushner and their three children, and by all accounts made a firm decision to keep her distance from political combat. When Trump requested her involvement with a political matter following her exit, she refused, a detail later revealed in one of her books.
The Wolff account suggests that refusal has become a pattern — and that it held firm even when the stakes were unusually high.
The Friendships That Didn’t Survive
The cost of Ivanka’s years in the White House was not only personal exhaustion. It extended to her social world, which contracted significantly during and after the Trump administration.
Among the most publicly discussed casualties was her friendship with Chelsea Clinton. The two had once moved in overlapping social circles, attending events together and maintaining what appeared to be a genuine personal connection despite their families’ political opposition.
Once the Trump administration took office, that connection ended. Speaking with Stephen Colbert in 2018, Clinton said: “I have not spoken to her in a long time. It’s clear that she has supported policies and decisions that I don’t agree with. I’ve been very vocal about my opposition to President Trump.”
By 2020, Clinton’s position had hardened further. On Watch What Happens Now, she said: “I have not spoken to her since 2016 and I have no interest in being friends with her. We were in touch at the beginning of the campaign but it’s just really hard when there’s someone who’s actively embracing their candidate — whether it’s their father or not. I don’t want to be friends with someone like that.”
Clinton was not alone. According to the New York Post, multiple people Ivanka had considered close friends distanced themselves from her during the White House years. An unnamed source said at the time: “Ivanka hated all the criticism and the threats and was unhappy about how a lot of their friends turned their back on them. She feels it’s bad for her family and negative in general in her circle of friends. She wants as normal a life as she can arrange for her and her family.”
The Business Fallout
Beyond friendships, Ivanka’s professional identity also took a significant hit during those years.
Her fashion brand, which she had launched in 2011 with the goal of providing professional yet affordable clothing for women, became a target for political backlash almost immediately after her father’s election. Major retailers including Nordstrom, Burlington, and Neiman Marcus withdrew their support. Facing ongoing controversy, Ivanka chose to shut the brand down entirely in 2018.
The White House From the Inside
Further details about Ivanka and Kushner’s time in the administration emerged through Stephanie Grisham, who served as White House Press Secretary and later published her memoir I’ll Take Your Questions Now.
Grisham described the couple’s presence in the administration in sharply critical terms, suggesting they frequently behaved as though they occupied a position of royalty within the White House. One of the most discussed episodes in the memoir involved a state visit to the United Kingdom, during which Ivanka and Kushner reportedly pushed for an official meeting with Queen Elizabeth II despite protocol restrictions that made such a meeting impossible to arrange.
Grisham wrote that the episode left her feeling as though “Jared and Ivanka thought they were the royal family of the United States.”
In the same memoir, Grisham claimed Ivanka frequently referred to her father as “my father” in formal settings — a detail that struck some readers as an attempt to remind those around her of her particular standing — while describing Kushner as someone who inserted himself into significant projects but made himself scarce when difficulties emerged.
Where Things Stand Now
Ivanka Trump currently lives in Florida with Kushner and their three children. Those familiar with the family say that while her relationship with her father remains close at a personal level, she has made a clear and consistent choice to express any political views privately rather than publicly.
The Wolff account, if accurate, suggests that choice held firm even when the campaign believed it needed her most — and that the words “this time” were not accidental. They were a signal that the version of Ivanka who stood at the center of her father’s political world has chosen not to return.
For a woman who was once described as one of the most powerful people in Washington, it is a remarkable and deliberate retreat.
Whether it lasts — and whether her father’s orbit will eventually pull her back in — remains an open question. For now, she has answered it the same way each time it has been asked.
With a quiet, firm no.