Ivanka Trump on Building an Authentic Life

2026-05-31

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Ivanka Trump grew up on construction sites and in boardrooms, learning what it takes to be a builder. At just 22 years old, she started doing real estate for a Brooklyn developer. She notched small wins with construction crews and learned the trade. Then came the launch of her own fashion brand — which reached over $800 million in annual sales — run simultaneously with the Trump Organization's real estate acquisitions. The centerpiece was the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C., a dilapidated 1890s building she personally shep...

Then came the launch of her own fashion brand — which reached over $800 million in annual sales — run simultaneously with the Trump Organization's real estate acquisitions. The centerpiece was the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C., a dilapidated 1890s building she personally shepherded into a thriving urban hotel.

In 2016, she went to Washington, D.C. to provide support to her father in his first term as President of the United States. During the four years in Washington, D.C., she helped in doubling the child tax credit for 40 million families, standing up the first national paid family leave plan for federal employees, passing nine pieces of legislation against human trafficking, and getting the Great American Outdoors Act signed — the largest environmental legislation since Teddy Roosevelt created the national parks.

When it ended, she started over, and built again. She co-founded Planet Harvest, creating a market for the 40% of American fruits and vegetables discarded each year because they don't meet cosmetic specifications. She's building Sazan, a 1,400-hectare private island in the Mediterranean with five miles of beachfront. She's investing in founders at the frontier of AI, biotech, robotics, and space. And she's working with Elad Gil to create Alexandria AI, a project that will translate the world's great public-domain literature into every major language and give it away for free.

She describes herself as mission-driven now, not achievement-driven. The difference, she says, took her decades to find.

Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/ivanka-trump

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Chapters

(00:00:00) Knowing What Excites You

(00:02:02) The Sazan Island Project

(00:07:18) Knowing Who You Are

(00:13:06) Creating Stillness

(00:16:30) Finding Mentors In Books