Can Chelsea and Ivanka’s Friendship Survive the Campaign

The close friendship between Chelsea Clinton and Ivanka Trump has been placed on hold for the duration of the 2016 presidential campaign. According to sources close to both women, they have decided that any public display of their friendship during the election could be misconstrued and become a potential issue for their parents during the campaign

Chelsea Clinton is the only daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Ivanka is Donald Trump’s most well-known daughter. Both women have a lot in common. They grew up with privilege; they are both in their 30s and both married men of Jewish faith who are financially successful in their own right. They are also expectant mothers and accomplished wives. During their formative years, they shared the mutual empathy of growing up in the public eye and living through their father’s scandals. As they matured, they chose to devote themselves to their family’s work. Carrying on their parents’ legacies in their respective empires, Chelsea and Ivanka serve as board members and high-ranking officials at the Clinton Foundation and the Trump Organization respectively.

Introduced by their husbands, they immediately clicked. At the Glamour Women of the Year award last year, they showed genuine delight at each other’s presence where they laughed and embraced for the cameras. In a Vogue profile of Ivanka that year, Chelsea told Vogue, “There’s nothing skin-deep about Ivanka. I think that’s a real tribute to her because certainly anyone as gorgeous as she is could have probably gone quite far being skin-deep.” She also praised Ivanka’s natural charm, comparing it to her father, President Bill Clinton.

Before the 2016 presidential campaign, the Clintons and the Trumps were on friendly terms. The Clintons famously attended Donald Trump’s 2005 wedding to his current wife, Melania Knauss. Bill Clinton and Donald Trump share a passion for golf, and they have played together. Chelsea and Ivanka were close friends who were seen at red carpet events and other philanthropic and cultural occasions in New York City.

Chelsea and Ivanka are both devoted to their parents and supportive of their campaigns. Counteracting Trump’s negative comments about women, Ivanka said that she would not be the person she is today, a high-level executive within his organization if Trump has not supported or encouraged women. Chelsea has gone out of her way to help her mother in the rigorous process of campaigning including being on the campaign trail. Being well versed in Hillary’s positions, she does an excellent job in explaining in detail Hillary’s different political policies.

Now that the presidential race has gotten more heated and increasingly likely that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are heading toward a fall election contest, Chelsea and Ivanka have both chosen not to be seen together in public until after the election. Donald Trump attacked Hillary Clinton as being married to one of the great womanizers of all time, referring to former President Clinton’s sex scandal during his term in the White House. Trump has also used vulgar language claiming that Hillary “got schlonged” by Barack Obama in the 2008 election. And he added a threat saying, “I haven’t even started on her yet.” Hillary counteracted by accusing Trump’s campaign as one based on “bigotry, bluster and bullying”.

Politics makes strange bedfellows and just as Chelsea’s father, former President Bill Clinton has developed a strong friendship both former President Bush’s, we can hope that when the campaign is over, Chelsea and Ivanka can also find a way to reestablish their friendship.