The People's Princess

Ivanka Trump is hard at work in Washington — but for whom?

- Caitlin Flanagan

IT’S THE NIGHT of the Tyson-Spinks fight: June 27, 1988. Twenty-two-thousand people crammed into the Atlantic City Convention Hall. Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna — all the big shots. And someone else as well: little Ivanka Trump, 6 years old, with a bow in her hair and a ringside seat. ¶ Why would anyone bring a little girl to a prizefight? This is a childhood constructed out of mores and experiences not immediately recognizable to most Americans as enriching for a young child, although they ultimately were — deeply enriching, in their strange way. It’s four years before Ms. magazine will invent Take Our Daughters to Work feminism, but the Trumps are way ahead of the game and Ivanka is in the middle of the revolution, her vivid memory of the night described in her 2009 book, The Trump Card. The fighters come out of their corners, the bell rings, and 90 seconds later Spinks is down, the referee counts — “Eight! Nine!” — and the biggest fight since the Thrilla in Manila is over before it begins.

The crowd has witnessed a historic event, but at the time the sentiments in the hall range from the angry (22,000 people feeling they’ve been cheated of a night’s entertainment) to the potentially violent (some percentage — including those with money on Spinks — feeling that the fight’s been fixed). Will there be a riot?

“My father hopped into the ring,” Ivanka recalls. “He was dressed impeccably in a classic power suit — a real ’80s look. I remember thinking he was so brave, so confident, so charismatic, trying to take control like that. I was just a little girl, but I was awestruck. I imagine it was a scary scene, but it never occurred to me to feel afraid because my father was there, taking charge.”