Ivanka Trump opens up on mom's death, assassination attempt on her dad

Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News on Apr 9, 2026

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Ivanka Trump broke down in tears in new a interview, revealing her heartbreak over her mother’s death and the shocking moment she learned her father had been shot.

President Donald Trump was shot during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as he campaigned for a second term in the White House back in 2024. On July 13 of that year, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks unleashed gunfire from a nearby rooftop, grazing Trump’s ear. Crooks was subsequently killed with a shot to the head by a Secret Service agent.

Ivanka said she was with two of her children in Bedminster, New Jersey, when she first heard the news. She shares 15-year-old daughter Arabella and sons Joseph, 12, and Theodore, 10, with her husband, Jared Kushner.

“There was a lot of commotion. The televisions were on, so I saw it almost immediately,” she said on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast Thursday, adding that “it was almost real time.”

Ivanka continued: “It was before he had stood back up that I had seen what was transpiring, and two of my children were there. My first reaction was to turn them away. It was incredibly difficult.”

The first daughter said that while she was worried, she almost immediately knew everything was going to be alright.

“Interestingly, I knew in real time in that moment that he was fine. I just knew it wasn’t his time,” she said. “I was horrified and scared and protective of my children, but I also didn’t believe the worst possible outcome had transpired.”

During the same interview, Ivanka also opened up about the sudden death of her mother, Ivana Trump. She was found unconscious at the bottom of the stairs at her Manhattan home in July 2022, and she died later the same day.

Ivanka started to cry when she talked about how her children would never really get to know their grandmother. She recalled how her emotions were difficult to control following her mother’s death. She said she would “talk about her and start to cry, just like I’m still doing, but in a different way, like I was avoiding.” During the same time period, Kushner also underwent a surgery for cancer, ultimately inspiring Ivanka to seek out therapy.

“I wanted to make sure I’m really good at being tough,” she said.