Ivanka Trump’s cause to feed Ukrainians draws praise, skepticism
Donald Trump’s controversial daughter has reportedly donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to help deliver 1 million meals to Ukrainians devastated by Russia’s invasion of their country

A month after Donald Trump praised Vladimir Putin’s justification for invading Ukraine as “genius” and “savvy,” Ivanka Trump announced Friday that she’s been working with several faith-based organizations to ensure the delivery of 1 million meals to people trapped in the war-torn country.

Fox News reported Thursday that Trump’s controversial daughter and former White House senior adviser has personally donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase about 158,000 pounds of food being shipped Europe.

 

 

On Friday, Ivanka Trump returned to social media after a two-month absence to thank everyone who was involved the 1 million meal-delivery effort. She also told Fox News: “The Ukrainian people have shown inspiring courage and resilience during the invasion of their country by Russia. With this food, I hope to provide a small source of comfort and nourishment for Ukrainians who are suffering so greatly.”

One of the organizations working with Ivanka Trump, Bakersfield-based CityServe, said its collaboration with her goes back to when she worked in the White House and spearheaded the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Families Food Box program at the start of the pandemic.

But reactions are mixed to Trump’s announced generosity to people in Ukraine, given that she remains a polarizing figure in American life and because of questions about whether her father’s actions with regard to Putin, Ukraine and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy influenced Putin’s decision to invade, as the Los Angeles Times and other outlets have reported.

On one hand, praise for Ivanka Trump came another collaborator in the meal delivery effort. Pastor Paula White-Cain of the City of Destiny Church in Orlando, Florida told Fox News: “Quite honestly, if it weren’t for her immediate involvement, a plane would not already be on its way to Poland right now to deliver 1 million meals for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the devastation of their nation.”

On the other hand, critics on social media wondered if Ivanka Trump was trying to rehabilitate her reputation, which was battered by her association with her father. Some also called her contributions “blood money” after noting that Donald Trump was impeached in 2019 after threatening to withhold vital military aid to Ukraine unless Zelenskyy launched a politically motivated investigation to help him find damaging information about his rival, Joe Biden, in the 2020 presidential election.

During his time in office, Trump also was accused of being overly admiring and solicitous of Putin. Reports at the time also suggested that Ivanka Trump shared that admiration. BuzzFeed News reported in 2018 that she took delight in sitting in Putin’s chair in the Kremlin during a 2006 visit to Russia with her brother, Donald Trump Jr. The visit was arranged by a Trump family associate who was trying to work out a Moscow real estate deal for Trump with Putin’s help.

The day before Russian missiles began bombing Ukraine cities, Donald Trump controversially expressed admiration for Putin’s justification for invading.

“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” Trump said in the interview, per Politico. “He used the word ‘independent’ and ‘we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.”

The day of the invasion, Trump released a statement, stating, “If I were in Office, this deadly Ukraine situation would never have happened!”

As the United Nations reports that Russia’s attack has killed more than 1,000 Ukrainian civilians, displaced more than 6 million inside Ukraine and forced another 3.6 million to flee to Poland and other neighboring countries, Ivanka Trump continues to be be mired in a host of other controversies and investigations related her father.

She has been asked to testify in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Donald Trump supporters seeking to stop certification of the results of the 2020 election. She, along with her father and brothers, also are at the center of civil and criminal investigations into the finances of her father’s Trump Organization.

Since leaving Washington D.C. in January 2021, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have kept a relatively low profile as they’ve resettled their family in Miami, Florida.

Ivanka Trump briefly returned to social media in January after an eight-month absence to share photos of herself helping with a food give-away in Idaho and upstate New York, but critics, including Vanity Fair writer Bess Levin, called Trump’s photos self-serving and a clear case of her trying to rehabilitate her image by “pretending to be a good person.”

Delivering food to people in need appears to be a cause Ivanka Trump has become committed to. With the effort to send meals to Ukraine, Trump is working with the UPS Foundation and several faith-based groups to get packaged meals of oatmeal and goulash delivered to Warsaw, Poland, Fox News said. The groups include CityServe, Mercy Chefs and City of Destiny, led by White-Cain.

The spokesperson for CityServe, a collaborative network of churches and community leaders, said the effort has centered around a CityServe hub in Apopka, Florida, facilitated by White-Cain’s City of Destiny church.

“From there, vans have been distributing the meals inside Ukraine to churches where food supply has fallen most,” the CityServe spokesperson said.