White House aide busts defining ‘myth’ about Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump presented herself throughout her father's presidency as a calming influence on his worst impulses, but a former White House aide told the House select committee that was simply not true.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as director of strategic communications for Donald Trump toward the end of his presidency, testified before the panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, and she revealed that the former president's eldest daughter and his longtime adviser Hope Hicks did not have a moderating influence.

"There's a handful of sort of myths that have been created, and I don't know if it's, like, people pushed certain PR or what, but there was also this narrative that Hope Hicks could get through to him and push back on him," Griffin said. "I never once saw Hope Hicks push back on him, and that Ivanka was, like, the voice of reason and could get him to change his mind."

"I like Ivanka," she added. "She was very decent to me. But I never saw her change his opinion on something."

Griffin cited as an example the photo opportunity in Lafayette Square, where federal agents violently cleared peaceful protesters to make way for Trump to pose with a Bible in June 2020 in response to reports that he had been whisked into a White House bunker while demonstrations raged outside.

"It was Ivanka, Hope and Jared [Kushner] that convinced him to do the whole Lafayette Square and clearing the park with force sort of thing," Griffin testified. "So I also -- I question this notion that she had sort of excellent judgment that we -- I don't know. I didn't see her presence as changing things for the better, is my point."