5 ways Melania and Ivanka Trump are more similar than they'd like to admit, from a shared love of Pilates, matching fashion style and self-founded jewellery brands, to their 'family first' values
There has been a lot of speculation surrounding the nature of the relationship between Melania and Ivanka Trump. Are step-mum and stepdaughter besties, frenemies or just plain enemies? Whatever the case, the former first lady and first daughter are more similar than you think. Here are five ways ...
According to Inside Edition, the former first lady eats seven pieces of fruit per day, often cramming them into a smoothie, and sometimes adding a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast - which happens to be one of the only two breakfasts Ivanka offers her children to avoid "decision fatigue".
Ivanka, 40, is also serious about eating a healthy diet but ruled out doing only green juices after once enduring a brutal cleanse. Explaining how eating healthily is the "norm" for her, Ivanka told Shape magazine in 2015 that "salmon and chicken, salads and home-made veggie soups" are her go-to and she prefers nutritious meals to fast food, much like her stepmother once told Inside Edition.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
Melania and Ivanka would make great workout buddies ... Ivanka is often spotted jogging with her husband Jared or playing tennis with her children. She is also a fan of Reformer Pilates, particularly the Megaformer brand that the likes of her sister-in-law Karlie Kloss and former first lady Michelle Obama have tried in Washington DC. In similar fashion, Melania is also adamant about doing her daily sweat sessions and her exercises of choice lean toward Pilates and tennis. Her husband Donald isn't best known for keeping active so perhaps Melania and her stepdaughter should team up.
Whether they're twinning in blush pink as White House press secretary Steve Mnuchin's wedding guests, or Ivanka rocking a grey plaid suit on Capitol Hill just one month after her stepmother donned one to a United Nations speech in 2017, the Trump women regularly look like they've stuck to their own secret dress code.
But it's not just colour coordination that makes them so similar when it comes to style. They both showed up to a 2020 presidential debate wearing dark below-the-knee dresses with pointed toe heels, while other women must have missed the memo. Ivanka and Melania also got people talking when they hit the same mark on another occasion, both wearing belted dresses to support the then-president signing an executive order to help military spouses get hired in 2018.
Before their time in the White House, both women were known for modelling and having stints on television. But they have also shown they're cut from the same cloth with the lifestyle brands they launched using their famous last names. Ivanka launched fashion, accessories and jewellery brands which were successful for years but necessarily went defunct when she took a job in the White House.
Melania also launched a QVC jewellery brand in 2010 which sold out in 45 minutes. The lines were inspired by places she called home - New York, Paris and Palm Beach, and although it was a success, the brand had the same fate as a beauty brand she later launched and was discontinued.
"I studied design so I have many, many ideas for home, for clothing," she told Fox Business at the time. "I love beauty and fashion, so we will see in the future."
Body language expert Judi James shared that although the pair reportedly have a fierce rivalry between them in competing for the spotlight, and to be seen as Donald's right-hand woman, it just goes to show how similar Ivanka and Melania truly are. The duo rarely show emotion or spontaneity when together in public and always looked polished to perfection.
"The effort to achieve these high levels of perfection at all times suggests some form of like-minded thinking between Ivanka and her stepmother Melania," she told a British tabloid.
Despite their reported rivalries, one thing the women can agree on is how to raise their children and put family first. "It's a really remarkable thing and she's a great inspiration to me as I raise my own children in terms of family first and having the right priorities," Ivanka told People magazine about her stepmother.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
