Ivanka Trump: How First Daughter’s shock personal decision left Donald 'discombobulated’

Ivanka, dubbed the First Daughter due to her unusually prominent role in her father’s administration, made a life-changing choice in 2009. She decided to convert to Judaism in order to marry Jared Kushner, who is from a Jewish Orthodox background. According to 2019 book ‘Kushner Inc’, the future President was hugely taken aback by this.

Author Vicky Ward wrote: “Trump was said to be discombobulated by the enormity of what his daughter has done. 

“Trump, a Presbyterian, who strikes no one as particularly religious, was baffled by his daughter’s conversion.”

He would later say to his political aide Sam Nunberg: “Why should my daughter have to convert to marry anyone?”

The wedding party was also a “shock” to Ivanka’s father, due to its traditional conservative Jewish nature.

READ MORE: Donald Trump’s snub about Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner revealed

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Ivanka Trump’s decision discombobulated her father (Image: GETTY)

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Ivanka and Jared are now both senior advisers to the President (Image: GETTY)

Women were given shawls when they arrived, Ivanka’s dress covered her shoulders, and the sexes were asked to dance separately several times during the night. 

Perhaps this explains why Mr Trump’s wedding speech was, according to one guest, “lame and embarrassing”.

He apparently stood up and said: “Ivanka’s great, and Jared’s great, and they’re great together, so let me give a toast.”

The guest scoffed: “I’m like, is that all you’ve got?”

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Jared and Ivanka’s wedding, 2009 (Image: GETTY)

Even after the wedding, Mr Trump apparently had misgivings about his daughter’s choice of husband.

He reportedly said to friends: “Why couldn’t she have married Tom Brady? Have you seen how far he throws a football?”

He also thought Jared’s father, who is also a real estate giant, was “stupid” because he was caught fudging his accounts and sentenced to two years in prison.

However, it wasn’t just the Trump family who were surprised by the match.

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Charlie, Seryl and Jared Kushner (Image: GETTY)

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Ivanka on trip to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem’s Old City (Image: GETTY)

According to a Kushner family member, it was “shocking” that Jared’s parents allowed him to marry a convert.

The relative told Ms Ward: “If she hadn’t been rich and famous, that wouldn’t have been allowed.”

In fact, before Ivanka’s conversion, Jared’s parents Charlie and Seryl Kuhner were horrified at the idea that their son might marry outside the faith. 

They refused to even meet Ivanka and their stinging disapproval reportedly contributed to the couple’s three-month “break-up” in 2008.

Jared and Ivanka reunited on a boating holiday orchestrated by Rupert Murdoch’s then-wife Wendi Deng Murdoch, who had not told them the other would be there.

Soon after, Ivanka converted to Judaism under the instruction of Rabbi Haskel Lookstein.

Rabbi Lookstein was the rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on New York’s Upper East Side, and held certain gravitas as a member of the Rabbinical Council of America.

According to family friend Bob Sommer, Charlie made Ivanka’s conversion “as challenging as possible” to test her devotion.

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Ivanka Trump has one of the most influential positions in the Trump administration (Image: GETTY)

Mr Sommer said: “This wasn’t like, ‘Talk to a rabbi, read a couple of paragraphs. 

“It was hard, and it was on Charlie’s terms.”

Nevertheless, Ivanka passed with flying colours and the wedding took place on October 25, 2009.

Her in-laws were soon “effusive” about her, with Charlie explaining to a friend how Ivanka really wanted to be a Kushner.

source: express.co.uk