The Moment Ivanka & Lara Trump's Rumored Feud Took A Surprising U-Turn

There has been talk about whether Ivanka Trump gets along with Lara Trump pretty much since the latter walked down the aisle with the former's brother, Eric Trump, in November 2014. Speculation has swirled that the two are at loggerheads, jostling for prime position within Donald Trump's realm. Still, Ivanka laid to rest any rumors of a feud in June 2024 with a sweet Instagram gesture that appeared to show a tight-knit bond between the sisters-in-law.

It started with a pic of Lara cuddling up to Ivanka's German Shepherd-lab mix rescue dog, Simba. "I'm sorry, I'm stealing your dog," she wrote on the snap posted to her Insta story. Ivanka was quick to react, sharing the pic too, seemingly evidencing the women actually hang out together, at least occasionally.

Conjecture regarding the state of Ivanka and Lara's relationship ramped up a notch in May 2023 after Donald's oldest daughter axed the civil fraud trial attorneys she hired with her siblings, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and picked her own counsel. However, Lara insisted there were no problems in Trump land, nothing to see here, move along now, please. "I think people are trying to make that a bigger deal than it really is," she told the Daily Mail. "It's not common to have to go through all this stuff that my husband and his siblings go through," Lara continued, insisting that Ivanka just gelled better with somebody else and that the lawyers were all happily working together as one.

Rumors of a feud between Ivanka and Lara Trump were called into question after the women both shared a snap of Lara cuddling up to Ivanka's dog in June 2024. The Insta story shares appeared to show everything was rosy, despite Lara previously indicating otherwise. When the Daily Mail asked her in 2023 if she hangs out with Ivanka in Florida, where they both live, she was kind of evasive. "We do," Lara said before quickly switching the subject to her favorite topic, Donald Trump.

Although haters may still question the validity of a genuine friendship between Lara and Ivanka, there is no doubt about her position on the Trump train. Since Lara's Fox News exit in November 2023, she's been soaring through the political ranks, putting Ivanka, who used to be the bookies' favorite for the first female Trump presidential candidate, in the corner. In fact, following Lara's RNC takeover in May 2024, she's become the latest GOP female superstar, thanks to a combo of nepotism and timing.

"Ivanka has withdrawn herself from all of this; she's clearly trying to separate herself from her father," biographer David Cay Johnston told The Times in February 2024. "Donald likes to promote women who will do his bidding; he wants women who he can control, and Lara fits that role. Don Jr and Eric's experience would not lead anyone, including their father, to think that they have the skill to run a national political party."

Lara Trump's rise through the ranks of the Trump political dynasty has taken many by surprise. Aside from the long-held belief that Ivanka Trump would be the first to take over the GOP mantle, there are claims Donald Trump was not a fan of his second son's wife. "Lara's an idiot, and I don't say it to be mean; I say it because it's true," former Trump attorney Michael Cohen claimed during an interview with the podcast "Political Beatdown" in February 2024. "In fact, first and foremost, Donald didn't even like her for many, many years. He didn't want Eric to even marry her. He had found somebody else that was working at the Trump organization that he wanted Eric to marry."

Cohen claimed Donald mocked Lara's looks and thought she was a joke, as did Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. However, he said Donald's mind changed lightening quick after he heard Lara "talking about him on television, and it caught his attention, and he's like 'whoa whoa, these are like beautiful things [that she's saying].'"

Meanwhile, there are also claims that Lara talked smack about Donald, Ivanka, and Melania Trump. In fact, another Donald nemesis, Omarosa Manigault Newman, claimed she had the evidence on tape. "Let's be clear, I have Lara badmouthing Ivanka, I have Lara badmouthing Donald, I have Lara badmouthing Melania," she told Cohen during an episode of his "Mea Culpa" podcast in September 2020.