Georgina Bloomberg defends 'wonderful' best friend Ivanka Trump: 'She is a good daughter'

Georgina Bloomberg has spoken out to defend her best friend Ivanka Trump, insisting that the First Daughter is a ‘wonderful, smart person’ who has received ‘a lot of criticism that she doesn’t deserve’. 

The 37-year-old daughter of former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who switched allegiance from the Republican party to the Democrats before throwing his hat into the left’s presidential candidacy race, has been friends with the First Daughter since they were in their 20s – and she insists that their relationship has not suffered as a result of their opposing political views. 

‘I think she’s a wonderful, smart person, and she’s handled the situation really, really well,’ Georgina said in an interview with the Daily Beast, adding that she believes Ivanka, 39, is ‘a good daughter and a supportive daughter’ who ‘does a really good job of… not being disrespectful to her family’. 

Defense: Georgina Bloomberg has defended her best friend Ivanka Trump, insisting she is a 'wonderful person' and a 'good daughter' who has received criticism she 'doesn't deserve'

Defense: Georgina Bloomberg has defended her best friend Ivanka Trump, insisting she is a ‘wonderful person’ and a ‘good daughter’ who has received criticism she ‘doesn’t deserve’

Close: The billionaire heiresses (pictured with Ivanka's daughter Arabella in 2014), now in their late 30s, were incredibly close in their 20s, when they both lived in New York City

Close: The billionaire heiresses (pictured with Ivanka’s daughter Arabella in 2014), now in their late 30s, were incredibly close in their 20s, when they both lived in New York City 

Despite Ivanka’s very public support of her father’s administration – in which she serves as a senior adviser – professional equestrian Georgina hit back at the suggestion that her friend ‘agrees with everything that her father is doing’, using her own experiences with her father to defend the First Daughter. 

‘People always assume that the daughters of politicians agree with everything that their father is doing, or that they stand for the exact same things or have the exact same beliefs, and that’s just not true,’ she said. 

‘I support a lot of what my father believes in, but do I agree with every single one of his policies? No. I’m my own person and have my own beliefs.’

Georgina also spoke out about Ivanka’s decision to take such a prominent role within her father’s White House, insisting she ‘took an opportunity’ that few people would have been able to turn down.  

‘At the end of the day it’s her father, and she’s very quick to get a lot of criticism that she doesn’t deserve, and I think that she’s handled herself wonderfully over the last four years,’ she added.

However, the mother-of-one admitted that she has not actually seen Ivanka since Trump became President, and she noted that this distance has helped them to avoid any ‘awkward’ encounters or difficult conversations about their own conflicting views, and those of their respective fathers.  

During the height of their friendship, before Trump launched himself into politics, Ivanka and Georgina seemed to hold many of the same political opinions; the now-First Daughter and her husband Jared Kushner actually hosted a fundraiser for New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker at their Manhattan apartment in 2013, seven years before he went up against Bloomberg in the hopes of becoming his party’s 2020 presidential candidate. 

Support: Despite voicing her support for the Biden/Harris campaign, Georgina, 37, said that she and Ivanka, 39, remain friends

Support: Despite voicing her support for the Biden/Harris campaign, Georgina, 37, said that she and Ivanka, 39, remain friends

Balance: Georgina spoke out about the public feud between her father, an ex-Republican who vied for the Democratic presidential candidacy, saying both he and Trump were in the wrong

Balance: Georgina spoke out about the public feud between her father, an ex-Republican who vied for the Democratic presidential candidacy, saying both he and Trump were in the wrong

Criticism: In February, Trump labeled Bloomberg 'mini Mike' and poked fun at his height, while the former New York City Mayor said their mutual acquaintances thought he was a 'clown'

Criticism: In February, Trump labeled Bloomberg 'mini Mike' and poked fun at his height, while the former New York City Mayor said their mutual acquaintances thought he was a 'clown'

Criticism: In February, Trump labeled Bloomberg ‘mini Mike’ and poked fun at his height, while the former New York City Mayor said their mutual acquaintances thought he was a ‘clown’

But when questioned about the couple’s ‘change’ in views – specifically Ivanka’s recent declaration that she is ‘unapologetically pro-life’ – Georgina once again defended the senior White House advisers, simply saying that ‘a lot of things have changed’ and that ‘people change, and people grow’.

Ivanka made the decision to voice her views on abortion just days before the election, having previously avoided coming down on either side of the debate. 

‘I respect all sides of a very personal and sensitive discussion,’ Ivanka said in an interview with Real Clear Politics on October 30, going in to say, ‘but I am also a mother of three children, and parenthood affected me in a profound way in terms of how I think about these things.’

She then added: ‘I am pro-life, and unapologetically so.’

Despite her father vowing during his brief presidential campaign to ‘expand access to affordable birth control and eradicate barriers to safe and legal abortions’, Georgina has not ever voiced her own views on abortion and women’s reproductive rights. 

She did however tell the Daily Beast that she ‘obviously aligns more in thought with Biden than Trump’ in terms of overall political views.  

Still, Georgina refuses to allow opposing political views to dictate her friendships, and she explained that many of her friends do not hold the same beliefs as she does, saying that, while she ‘doesn’t want to be friends with anybody who is racist or homophobic’, she does not believe that everyone who supports Trump falls into those categories. 

Georgina is aware that not everyone who runs in the elite New York City circles that Ivanka and Jared were once a part of will take that same stance, however, and she noted that it will likely be ‘difficult’ for the couple to return to the life they once enjoyed in Manhattan, before Trump became President and they took up such prominent roles in his administration. 

Changes: Georgina noted that it may well be 'difficult' for Ivanka (pictured in the Big Apple in 2011) and her husband Jared Kushner to return to their former New York lifestyle

Changes: Georgina noted that it may well be ‘difficult’ for Ivanka (pictured in the Big Apple in 2011) and her husband Jared Kushner to return to their former New York lifestyle 

Social life: Prior to Trump's presidency, Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner regularly schmoozed within New York's most elite circles, even attending the Met Gala in 2015 and 2016

Social life: Prior to Trump's presidency, Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner regularly schmoozed within New York's most elite circles, even attending the Met Gala in 2015 and 2016

Social life: Prior to Trump’s presidency, Ivanka and Jared regularly schmoozed within New York’s most elite circles, even attending the Met Gala in 2015 (left) and 2016 (right)

Close: Georgina (pictured with Eric Trump's wife Lara in 2019) enjoys a close friendship with all of the Trump children, and said that they are 'good people'

Close: Georgina (pictured with Eric Trump’s wife Lara in 2019) enjoys a close friendship with all of the Trump children, and said that they are ‘good people’ 

‘I think in New York they’ll probably forget about this and it’ll probably change for them, but I think right now it’ll be a bit difficult for them coming back, because obviously this is something that is still very fresh and stoking everybody’s fire,’ she said. 

Georgina hopes that in the future people ‘will hopefully welcome them back’ – however many reports have suggested that Ivanka and Jared may well be ‘shunned’ by the high-powered New Yorkers they once called friends. 

Prior to Trump’s presidency, Ivanka and Jared regularly socialized with high-profile New Yorkers – and even attended the Met Gala on a number of occasions, where they schmoozed with some of the world’s most famous celebrities. 

Given that the event is organized by Vogue editor-in-chief and outspoken Trump critic Anna Wintour however, it seems unlikely that their pair will earn an invite to the prestigious event in the future. 

Politics are not the only thing that could have come between the billionaire daughters over the past four years; perhaps surprisingly, their friendship seems to have endured even as their fathers were engaging in a very public slinging match during the Democratic presidential race. 

In February, Trump made numerous mocking comments about Bloomberg’s height, branding him ‘mini Mike’ and saying that he is a ‘5’4′ mass of dead energy’. 

Bloomberg – who was once good friends with the President – then fired back, telling Trump that ‘many’ of the people they both know in New York ‘laugh at him and call him a carnival barking clown’.    

But while Georgina called the public feud ‘a bit upsetting’, she is just as critical of her own father’s actions as she is of Trump’s, saying: ‘I think people assume that I was only upset and disappointed by Trump’s comments toward my father, but on the flip side I was not super happy about my father insulting him either.’

source: dailymail.co.uk