Ivanka Trump: People should appreciate my father’s ‘tremendous empathy’ and ‘warmth’

CLEVELAND — Ivanka Trump is vouching for her father and his character as she gets set to address the Republican National Convention later this week, saying in an interview for ABC’s “Good Morning America” that people should appreciate Donald Trump’s empathy and warmth.

“I don’t know that people appreciate his tremendous empathy and his warmth, but they should,” Ms. Trump said. “Our country needs a president who’s able to dream big.”

Ms. Trump is scheduled to speak at the GOP Convention on Thursday — the same night Mr. Trump is slated to deliver his own speech.

“He’s totally left it up to me. I wish he’d give me input,” she said. “I think he wants it to come from my heart.”

Asked about her father’s use of social media, Ms. Trump said the only filter is “himself.”

“It has gotten him into trouble occasionally, but I think much more powerful is the fact that he speaks from the brain, he speaks from [the] heart,” she said.

Ms. Trump, a convert to Judaism, said her father clearly didn’t think a six-pointed star in one tweet criticizing Hillary Clinton as the “most corrupt candidate ever” was the Star of David.

“I think it should have been taken at face value — that was clearly not the intention,” she said.

“My father’s track record of supporting and advocating for Jewish people and for Israel is unimpeachable for a very long time,” she said. “Whether it being the grand marshal of the Israel Day Parade … to the support he has offered my husband and myself and our family as a young Jewish couple.”

Ms. Trump also said it’s the choice of major GOP figures skipping the Republican National Convention if they don’t want to be a part of the narrative or the future.

She said it wasn’t hurtful to hear that some major figures in the party wouldn’t be attending. Members of the Bush family, 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, and 2008 GOP nominee John McCain are all skipping the convention.

“No. That’s their choice if they don’t want to be part of the narrative, if they don’t want to be part of the future,” Ms. Trump said. “But this really is about a forward-looking moment.”

“My father is an outsider, and we went through a very tough primary,” she said. “And he emerged from that the winner, but there were certainly ruffled feathers along the way.”