Ivanka Trump with JD Vance, left, and Jared Kushner, right. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

By PJ Grisar November 6, 2024

Ivanka Trump, after mostly avoiding politics for the last four years, appeared onstage on Election Night during her father Donald Trump’s victory party at Mar-A-Lago. Is it possible she had a hand in writing his acceptance speech?

On Nov. 4, Ivanka Trump’s 43rd birthday, she posted to X (previously Twitter), a series of lessons she has learned, quoting philosophers Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus and the psychotherapist Esther Perel. But prominent on her list was a Jewish imperative.

“Avoid Lashon Hara/Gossip,” Trump wrote. “Choose words that heal, not harm.”

Forwarding the News

With so much at stake for American Jews in this election, get all the news and analysis that matters to American Jews each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Lashon hara, literally “evil tongue,” is one of the greatest sins in Judaism, a denigration said to “kill three” — the speaker, the listener and the person being talked about (usually it refers to speech that is true but harmful). As with Melania Trump’s anti-bullying initiative, Ivanka Trump’s insistence that we choose not to malign others has a piquant irony given their most famous relative.

Two days before Ivanka Trump’s birthday post, Tim Alberta reported in The Atlantic that Trump had briefly considered a new nickname for his former opponent — “Retarded Joe Biden.” (Trump has denied saying this.)

The Trump campaign of 2016 launched with the real estate mogul descending an escalator and calling Mexicans rapists. He is a prolific coiner of schoolyard nicknames and even likes to play the yente about the manhood of the late golf pro Arnold Palmer and the dining habits of fictitious cannibal Hannibal Lecter.

While not strictly lashon hara — a lot of Trump’s insults or blind items are made up, so better fit the designation motzi shem ra, or slander — his remarks are in the same derogatory spirit and harm more than heal.

Recently, Donald Trump has inveighed against an “enemy within,” though has also, in the past, had nice things to say about people marching at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017 (he later said the “very fine people” he was talking about did not include the neo-Nazis and white supremacists at the march.)

President Trump basically has two modes: the pejorative and the superlative. Early Wednesday morning, in the afterglow of a victory that seemed to include not just the Electoral College but also the popular vote, the Trump that took the stage in Florida was more eager to sing the praises of Elon Musk’s rockets and the people in his circle.

The word “best” turned up five times in the transcript of his 25-minute remarks, “beautiful” six, and “great” or “greatest,” 45.

It even seemed like he may have taken Ivanka Trump’s advice about healing words, as he vowed: “We’re going to help our country heal.”

This promise — and Trump declared his second administration would go by the motto “promises made, promises kept” — seems to run counter to Trump’s divisive rhetoric and announced policy plans.

He has stated that his second administration will implement mass deportations, rebuild the economy through tariffs in a move economists believe will drive up inflation and seek reprisals for a long list of enemies.

Trump was happy, and even gracious, in his victory speech, reserving the lashon hara and ad hominem for other countries. It remains to be seen if he will follow another pearl of wisdom from his daughter: “Forgive people — it frees you more than anyone else.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount