In a 2020 essay in Vanity Fair, Lysandra Ohstrom detailed her childhood friendship with Donald Trump‘s daughter, Ivanka Trump that offered a rare insight into who Ivanka really is — or at least was while still close to Ohstrom.
Ohstrom first befriended Ivanka after joining her seventh-grade class at New York City’s Chapin, an all girl’s private school on the Upper East Side. As Ohstrom tells it, the two spent their teen years gallivanting around Manhattan between occasional trips to Paris, London and, of course, Mar-a-Lago. She also shares some of the pretty gross comments Ivanka’s father allegedly made about her body over the years.
It has been noted that their friendship continued into adulthood with Ohstrom acting as one of two maids of honor in Ivanka’s wedding to Jared Kushner. Political differences and Ivanka’s support for her father’s presidential campaign eventually took their toll, driving a wedge between the former friends but Ohstrom now recalls a few moments from their friendship that seem to foreshadow Ivanka’s political allegiances.
As she’s touted the achievements the Trump administration has made for the middle class while not-so-covertly pursuing a massive wealth transfer to corporate America, I’ve been reminded of a phone call we had in our mid-20s,” Ohstrom wrote in Vanity Fair.
She remembers Ivanka having a harsh response after recommending she read Empire Falls by Richard Russo which follows a diner manager in a working-class community in Maine. She recalls Ivanka telling her: “Ly, why would you tell me to read a book about fucking poor people? What part of you thinks I would be interested in this?”
She notes that Ivanka was often quick to make comments about other people’s financial status. She writes: “Ivanka used to point out inconsistencies between a character’s profession and their lifestyle when we went to the movies. ‘Since when can a teacher afford a BMW?’ she would ask, munching on her usual small popcorn, coated in what would be an unpalatable amount of salt to a normal person. Or, ‘Why is a police officer living in a house like that?’”
Ohstrom calls these more brash, less-refined moments from Ivanka a sign of her “Trumpian edges.” She notes that, for all her class and ability to blend into old money circles in a way her father never has, Ivanka still “had the Trump radar for status, money, and power, and her dad’s instinct to throw others under the bus to save herself.”
Ohstrom says her friendship with Ivanka was already on the rocks by the time her wedding rolled around but the former First Daughter’s failure to check in and support her friend meant their friendship dropped off soon after.
At the close of the essay, Ohstrom ruthlessly notes that she hopes Ivanka is aware of the many millions of people relishing in her family’s political demise. So, it looks like there won’t be a best friend reconciliation any time soon.
