Ivanka's Former Best Friend Has Strong Words For The Trumps
Thanks to her role in President Donald Trump's administration, Ivanka Trump has lost more than one friendship. Chelsea Clinton previously revealed that she stopped talking to Ivanka in 2016. "I have no interest in being friends with someone who is not only complicit, but actively taking part in this administration's everyday collision of cruelty and incompetence," she said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen earlier this year.
Now, Ivanka's childhood BFF is opening up about their fraught friendship and how she feels about the Trump family. In a piece for Vanity Fair, freelance journalist Lysandra Ohrstrom wrote about growing up with the president's daughter. Ohrstrom met Ivanka in the seventh grade when they were classmates at Chapin, an all-girls school in NYC.
Their friendship grew over the years until they were "more sisters than best friends." When Ivanka married Jared Kushner in 2009, Ohrstrom was one of her two maids of honor.
Ivanka Trump's one-time friend wrote that Ivanka could be selfish
Given their close bond, it would be easy to assume that Ohrstrom would have voted for Trump, but she revealed in her essay that she "voted early against [Ivanka's] dad" in 2020. Ohrstrom recounted her memories of the president from her childhood, revealing that he couldn't remember her name in spite of the fact that she was one of Ivanka's closest friends. She wrote that Trump would comment not only on her figure, but also the appearances of Ivanka's other classmates, and even congratulate her for losing weight.
While Ohrstrom wrote that they were close and that Ivanka was a good friend to her in her younger years, she also described Ivanka as having "Trumpian edges." Ohrstrom described a growing rift in their adult years in which Ivanka was preoccupied with her own interests. The breaking point came shortly after Ivanka's wedding, when Ohrstrom expressed her hurt feelings at Ivanka not asking her how her new job was going. "I don't remember her exact reply, but it was something along the lines of, 'Ly, I'm too busy for this s***,'" wrote Ohrstrom.
Ivanka Trump's former BFF feels guilty for not holding her accountable
When Trump was elected in 2016, Ohrstrom wrote that she was initially optimistic of the influence Ivanka would have on him. Ohrstrom's friendship with Ivanka had deteriorated by then, but she "was sure [Ivanka] would step in to moderate her father's most regressive, racist tendencies — not out of any moral commitment, but because caging young children and ripping up global climate agreements was not a good look."
As Trump's presidency continued, Ohrstrom watched her former friend back up her controversial father. "For the past four years I have tried to tune out the conversation that dominated international media, but it is nearly impossible to ignore when the person who used to pluck ingrown hairs from your bikini line suddenly appoints herself to the role of unelected public official and begins to torch democracy," she wrote.
When Joe Biden defeated Trump in the election — a win that the president has yet to acknowledge — Ohrstrom was among those who celebrated the victory. She wrote, "I was with them, crying with relief, matched only by the regret and shame I feel for not holding my former friend to account sooner."