Rare joint sighting of Ivanka and Melania Trump together as Trump celebrates Time magazine honor with NYSE bell-ringing ceremony

By 
 December 14, 2024

Given her noticeable absence from the campaign trail and decision to not join her father's second presidential administration, there has been some speculation about Ivanka Trump distancing herself from the rest of the family, in part because of an alleged feud with former and future first lady Melania Trump.

If Ivanka and Melania are feuding, it wasn't overtly evident on Thursday when both women joined President-elect Donald Trump as he was honored with the opportunity to ring the opening bell to begin the day's trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the Daily Mail reported.

That said, the two women also didn't interact much, if at all, with each other, which will likely fuel a continuation of the rumors of some sort of problematic issue between them.

Ringing the bell

Fox Business reported that President-elect Trump was surrounded by several family members, Vice President-elect JD Vance, some of the nominees for his incoming administration, and other dignitaries and important officials as he rang the opening bell and delivered brief remarks at the NYSE on Thursday.

He mostly spoke of his plans for the next four years to improve the nation's economy and prosperity, including by cutting taxes and regulations, increasing domestic energy production, and getting price inflation under control, among other things.

"We're going to do it right, and we're going to take care of our people, and we're going to do things that nobody ever thought even were possible," Trump said. "But we're going to have an economy, the likes of which nobody's ever seen before, and everybody's coming back to America."

Time's Person of the Year

President-elect Trump was extended the honor of ringing the NYSE's opening bell after he was announced as Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2024, the second time he has received that prestigious recognition, as he first achieved that honor in 2016.

Time noted that the annual Person of the Year award goes to "the individual who, for better or for worse, did the most to shape the world and the headlines over the past 12 months. In many years, that choice is a difficult one. In 2024, it was not."

The outlet observed how Trump mounted an incredible political comeback to win the presidency for a second time in the same year that he also survived an assassination attempt, lawfare efforts to imprison him, multiple Republican primary challengers, the Democratic campaigns of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and a biased media that was stacked against him, among other obstacles that would have tripped up most anybody else.

"Today, we are witnessing a resurgence of populism, a widening mistrust in the institutions that defined the last century, and an eroding faith that liberal values will lead to better lives for most people. Trump is both agent and beneficiary of it all," Time said. "For marshaling a comeback of historic proportions, for driving a once-in-a-­generation political realignment, for reshaping the American presidency and altering America’s role in the world, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2024 ­Person of the Year."

The supposed feud between Ivanka and Melania

As for the alleged feud between Ivanka and Melania, the Daily Mail noted that they stood near each other at the NYSE bell-ringing ceremony but were separated by VP-elect Vance standing between them, but they did not otherwise reveal a supposed "tense" and "competitive" relationship.

The outlet reported that the tensions date back to at least President-elect Trump's first term, when then-senior advisor Ivanka is said to have been eyeing office space within the East Wing of the White House, only for then-first lady Melania to shut down that plan.

It was also noted that throughout Trump's first four years in office, the two women never launched any joint initiatives or co-hosted any events, and were rarely ever seen or photographed together.

This year, both women seemingly declined to appear on the campaign trail during Trump's re-election effort, though both were in attendance at the Republican National Convention, were with him at Mar-a-Lago on Election Night, and are expected to be at Trump's inauguration in January.

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