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By Nathan Guttman June 12, 2017

Years around the Trump and Kushner family businesses did little to prepare Ivanka Trump for life under the Washington spotlight, she said Monday morning.

“There’s a level of viciousness that I wasn’t expecting. I was not expecting the intensity of this experience,” Trump said in a Fox News interview. Trump said she was “blindsided on a personal level” by criticism directed at the Trump administration. “But for me, I’m trying to keep my head down and not listen to the noise and just work very hard to make a positive impact on the lives of people.”

The rare interview was part of her effort to promote the president’s jobs initiative, which he is rolling out this week. The First Daughter is scheduled to travel with President Trump to Wisconsin, where he will try to shift public attention towards his jobs push and away from the Russian investigation.

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Ivanka Trump was also asked about her visit to Israel with her father last month. She described her prayer at the Western Wall as “truly an unbelievable moment” which was “deeply personal.”

Trump also mentioned having met during the trip with Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia and Pope Francis in the Vatican. “To have covered the three largest world religions over the course of four days, it was deeply meaningful,” Trump said.

Judaism is not one of the world’s three largest religions.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

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