‘Vicious’ attacks on Trump shock Ivanka

DONALD Trump’s daughter has said she is surprised by the “viciousness” of attacks against her family since her father became President.

Ivanka Trump admitted she was “blind-sided” by the “ferocity” of the criticism from his opponents.

But she felt “incredibly optimistic” after former FBI director James Comey’s testimony relating to the US President’s alleged interference in a federal investigation into his campaign’s possible ties to Russia.

Ms Trump appeared on US show Fox & Friends to portray her father as a victim even though he routinely uses Twitter to make personal attacks against his opponents.

The President has claimed that a former beauty queen who criticised him may have a sex tape, he has also called a judge who blocked his travel ban a “so-called judge” and has a long record of insulting women.

In the interview Ms Trump, 35 – who was made one of her father’s advisers after his election – was asked whether she found the job harder than she expected.

She said: “It is hard and there is a level of viciousness that I was not expecting. I was not expecting the intensity of this experience.

“But this isn’t supposed to be easy. My father, and this administration intends to be transformative and we want to do big, bold things to change the status quo. Some of the distractions and some of the ferocity, I was a little blind-sided by on a personal level.

“But for me I’m trying to keep my head down and not listen to the noise and make a positive impact.”

Ms Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, a key adviser to the President, were reported to be considering moving back to New York from Washington over the conflict in the White House.

But Ms Trump said that her husband “loves” his job and that they were both “focused on the work” and not the 24-hour news cycle.

Ms Trump said that her father feels “very vindicated” by the testimony last week from Mr Comey. Mr Trump fired him as head of the FBI – a move the former agent said was an attempt to stop a probe into links between the administration and Russia.

But Ms Trump said the president feels “incredibly optimistic” about the investigation and everyone was “incredibly focused on the reason we all went to Washington and what we’re fighting for”. Meanwhile, the White House yesterday denied Mr Trump had asked Theresa May to postpone his state visit to the UK because of the expected protests.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the subject “never came up” during the two leaders’ telephone conversation on Friday.