Melania and Ivanka Trump’s Conflict Exposed: Insiders Share the Full Story of their Fight, Including the First Lady’s Unkind Nickname for her Stepdaughter

It’s no secret that Melania Trump’s first four years in the White House were marked by what insiders described as an ugly and enduring rivalry with her stepdaughter Ivanka.

It’s a rift that dates back to the Slovenian former model’s 2005 marriage to Donald Trump.

Melania Knauss, as she was then, was 34 to Donald’s 58 – and closer in age to his then 23-year-old, eldest daughter.

Some sense of private competition between Trump’s two leading ladies was, then, perhaps inevitable.

But his 2016 hard pivot from real estate and reality TV mogul to being the US president changed everything.

The family’s move from their own spacious New York City apartments to the close living and working quarters of the White House brought the Melania-Ivanka power struggle into sharper focus.

Insiders described how the women fought over everything from office space to foreign trips and even certain policy issues.

Melania certainly wasn’t helped by the fact she didn’t move to Washington until the summer of 2017. Her son Barron was 10 when his father won the 2016 election, and Melania stayed with him in New York while he finished the school year.

It’s no secret that Melania Trump’s first four years in the White House were marked by an ugly and enduring rivalry with her stepdaughter Ivanka. (The pair are pictured together at Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration). 

Some sense of private competition between Trump’s two leading ladies was perhaps inevitable. (Trump is pictured with Melania and Ivanka at the 2024 RNC). 

Melania Knauss, as she was then, was 34 to Donald’s 58 – and closer in age to his the 23-year-old, eldest daughter. (Ivanka, Donald and Melania are pictured in 2004). 

That left Ivanka – who, along with husband Jared Kushner, swiftly relocated her own young family to a $15,000-a-month DC rental – to take up many of the first lady’s responsibilities.

It was a job that she reveled in.

In fact, such was her enjoyment of her role that a request was reportedly conveyed to Melania’s team that the traditional ‘Office of the First Lady’ in the White House East Wing be re-purposed as the ‘Office of the First Family.’

According to one insider, the suggestion left Melania furious.

By 2018, relations were reportedly so strained that, on at least one occasion, the then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had to step in and mediate between the women and their offices.

Even now, with Ivanka and her husband – who both served as top advisors in the first Trump presidency – taking a decided step back from politics, tension remains.

‘Ivanka will always be a thorn in her side,’ said a source who knows both women.

It was particularly notable that the pair didn’t interact during Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony last month, even as they stood next to one another in the Capitol Rotunda.

One Trump staffer even described as ‘desperate’ Ivanka’s apparent efforts to appear in as many of the same key photos as Melania.

And while Ivanka, now 43, has stressed that she won’t be returning to the heart of DC politics for this administration, she is clearly keen to maintain a presence in her father’s life.

‘I’m most looking forward to just being able to show up for him as a daughter and be there for him, to take his mind off things and watch a movie with him or watch a sports game, to know that he can be with me and be himself, and just relax,’ she said in a podcast interview last month – during which, despite speaking at length for two hours, she didn’t mention her stepmother once.

‘[Melania] is going be irritated because Ivanka is going to just show up at state dinners and stuff. That’s going to be the new battle,’ a source said.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, Ivanka and Jared decamped with their three children to Miami, snapping up a $24 million mansion on Indian Creek Island, also known as the ‘billionaire’s bunker’.

Ivanka has since treated her 8.2 million Instagram followers to a regular stream of pictures and footage of sunny family vacations, her workout routines, wakeboarding excursions, and glitzy events alongside the likes of Kim Kardashian and Lauren Sanchez.

Ivanka has since treated her 8.2 million Instagram followers to a regular stream of pictures and footage of sunny family vacations, her workout routines, wakeboarding excursions, and glitzy events alongside the likes of Kim Kardashian and Lauren Sanchez.

Even now, with Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner– who both served as top advisors in the first Trump presidency –taking a decided step back from politics, tension remains. (Jared and Ivanka are pictured at the Liberty Ball). 

By 2018, relations were reportedly so strained that, on at least one occasion, the then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had to step in and mediate between the women and their offices. (Ivanka and Melania are pictured at Trump’s 2017 inauguration). 

Notoriously private, Melania – who is said to cattily refer to her stepdaughter as ‘the princess’ – reportedly considers the constant posting to be ‘unprofessional’.

Ivanka, who wore at least five different custom outfits during the week’s celebrations, shared 14 separate Instagram posts about her father’s second inauguration.

Of course, relations between stepmothers and stepdaughters can be tricky.

As Melania acknowledged in her recent memoir: ‘My role is not to replace [her stepchildren’s] mothers but to nurture a supportive and amicable connection… it is essential to remember that each person is deserving of respect and understanding, regardless of disagreements.’

Ivanka was extremely close to her late mother, Ivana, who died in 2022 following a fall down the stairs aged 73.

‘She really was this unbelievable role model for what a working woman could be, almost in mythological terms,’ Ivanka said of Ivana in that same podcast interview last month. ‘You know, she was impossibly glamorous while also being a working woman at a time when there were many, many more barriers.’

Before her foray into politics, Ivanka graduated from business school in 2004 and took a role in her father’s real-estate organization.

She later launched a fashion line that was held in large department stores including Macy’s, before starting a fine jewelry company. At her height, Ivanka was reportedly bringing in $100 million a year in sales. 

But, following her father’s first election win, sales declined – with many blaming worsening sales on anti-Trump boycotts. In 2018, she shuttered her fashion brand.

By contrast, Melania seemingly struggled to establish herself as a serious business player. With a background in modelling and English as her second language, her dalliances with a skin-care line and flogging jewelry on QVC in 2012 were short lived.

‘There’s a sense of competition with Ivanka, who is a very accomplished businesswoman. I think there’s a sense of trying to fit in with the Trump family, about being these accomplished business people,’ said a source close to Melania.

As Melania acknowledged in her recent memoir: ‘My role is not to replace [her stepchildren’s] mothers but to nurture a supportive and amicable connection…’ (Pictured: Don Jr, Barron, Ivanka, Melania and Eric in 2009). 

Of course, the First Daughter has now stepped back from work, focusing instead on philanthropy and her role as a mother.

Melania, meanwhile, recently enjoyed a brief moment as the New York Times’s No.1 bestselling author for her eponymous memoir, published in October.

She also currently selling NFTs ($150 a pop), gold-plated necklaces ($600) and Christmas ornaments ($90) on her website.

For all the stepfamily tension, however, Ivanka gets along well with her now 18-year-old half-brother Barron.

Indeed, all the Trump siblings reportedly get along well, with the president’s oldest children from his first marriage – Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric – said to enjoy spoiling and joking around with ‘baby’ Barron.

Perhaps the youngster, who has shown a tentative interest in politics, can get started by acting as family peacemaker between his mom and his stepsister.