Ivanka Trump: Politics, Family, Real Estate, Fashion, Music, and Life | Lex Fridman Podcast #436
Ivanka Trump tells Lex Fridman about renovating the Old Post Office, declining the 2024 campaign, and working 23 pardons including Alice Johnson’s commutation.
- Ivanka led the Old Post Office renovation on Pennsylvania Ave — the building was losing $6M/year; she won a ~2-year GSA competitive procurement process to get it.
- Trump Tower Chicago was designed by Adrian Smith of SOM, the same architect behind the Burj Khalifa; Ivanka walked the site standing on rebar.
- Kim Kardashian brought Alice Johnson’s life sentence (nonviolent drug offense) to Ivanka; she and Jared Kushner later worked on 23 pardons and commutations in the final days of the administration.
- Jared Kushner spearheaded the First Step Act; Ivanka says it was among the most consequential work of the White House years.
- Declined all involvement in the 2024 presidential campaign, citing her three young children and calling politics ‘a pretty dark world’ incompatible with her current priorities.
- Entire family — Ivanka, Jared, and all three kids — now trains Jiu-Jitsu with the Valente Brothers in Miami; children follow the studio’s 753 Samurai-derived code.
- Roman self-healing concrete (volcanic ash and lime) flagged as a genuinely exciting rediscovery for failing modern infrastructure.
- Bucket list includes Kilimanjaro with her kids, learning Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Texas Flood on guitar, a Jiu-Jitsu black belt, and going to the moon.
Guests: · 2024-07-02 · Watch on YouTube
