Ivanka Trump Posts Cryptic Poem Amid Father's Legal Turmoil

Ivanka Trump Posts Cryptic Poem Amid Father's Legal Turmoil

Ivanka Trump has posted a cryptic poem to her Instagram story amid her father's ongoing criminal trial.

On Tuesday, adult film star Stormy Daniels took the stand at New York City's Manhattan Criminal Court, where she shared allegations of a purported one-night stand with Trump back in 2006. Trump has been married to Melania Trump since 2005.

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to the so-called hush money he arranged for his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to pay Daniels to keep the alleged affair she had with the former president a secret ahead of the 2016 election.

On the same day, Ivanka Trump shared a video of musician and composer Tom Waits reciting "The Laughing Heart" poem by Charles Bukowski to her Instagram story.

Newsweek emailed a Trump spokesperson for comment on Wednesday.

Ivanka Trump
Ivanka Trump at New York State Supreme Court on November 8, 2023 in New York City. Amid her father's hush money trial she has posted a poem to Instagram. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

While Ivanka Trump didn't explain why she shared the poem, in it, Bukowski criticizes the habit of people allowing others to "club" the joy out of life and encourages people to take control of their success and happiness.

Some of the lines include "Your life is your life / Don't let it be clubbed into dank submission" and "There is light somewhere / It may not be much light but / It beats the darkness / Be on the watch."

This isn't the first time Ivanka Trump has posted a poem to Instagram while her father has faced legal turmoil.

In January, she shared an English translation of the poem "The Guest House," by 13th-century Persian poet Jalaluddin Rumi.

While Ivanka Trump didn't explain why she posted it, the poem talks about being thankful for challenging circumstances and difficult emotions. However, her post did coincide with the day that appeals court judges decided whether Donald Trump had immunity in the federal election interference case.

Ivanka Trump has proven to be a fan of poetry and in April she took to the social media platform to share a poem she had written herself.

The former president's daughter posted a variety of photos of a trip she and her husband, Jared Kushner, took to Utah. She wrote in the caption: "Strums of heartstrings blend with the wise wind's hum/A verse on the breeze, where the endless roads run/In this quiet kingdom of stone and sun/Her spirit's verse is a melody spun."

While on the stand on Tuesday, Daniels testified that she met Donald Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, in July of 2006. At the time, Daniels was working with adult film company Wicked Pictures.

The defense launched an unsuccessful appeal for Judge Juan Merchan to declare a mistrial based on Daniels' testimony, arguing that she had shared details that had "nothing to do" with the case. Minutes before court returned from lunch, Donald Trump also called for a mistrial in a post shared on his Truth Social platform.

"THE PROSECUTION, WHICH HAS NO CASE, HAS GONE TOO FAR. MISTRIAL!" the former star of The Apprentice wrote, in part. "This Witch Hunt is FALSE ANCIENT HISTORY that was fully adjudicated by the Voters in the 2016 Presidential Election. It only has to do with Election Interference, and trying to help Crooked Joe Biden get elected because he can't do it by himself."

Donald Trump's trial has affected his ability to campaign as he vies for a second term in the White House. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is expected to face off against President Joe Biden this November in a rematch that follows Donald Trump's 2020 defeat.

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About the writer


Billie is a Newsweek Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. She reports on film and TV, trending ... Read more

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