Society queen Ivanka knows who's the daddy
Donald's golf-mad daughter knocks Paris Hilton off the throne with mix of brains and beauty
Scotsman.com By Nicholas Christian
OPPONENTS of Donald Trump's Aberdeenshire golf course had better watch out – the American tycoon has a new secret weapon. She's smart, ferocious and 5ft 10in tall, and her immaculately-styled blonde hair is unquestionably her own.
Ivanka Trump, the 26-year-old product of Donald's tempestuous marriage with former Czech skiing champion Ivana, is being feted in the United States as a force to be reckoned with in her father's business empire. It seems she has inherited the looks of her mother and the savage business acumen of her Old Man.
Trump junior spent last week topping out a new condominium and hotel in downtown Manhattan for which, as the Trump organisation's vice-president for acquisitions and development, she was wholly responsible.
A gushing profile in the New York Times sealed her arrival in the top flight, noting she had both "inherited her father's prodigious flair for self-promotion" and become "a master of self-packaging".
Ivanka has also made the list of the top 25 female celebrity golfers courtesy of her 36 handicap – a hobby which suggests that should the Trumps ever get round to building in Aberdeenshire, she may be a frequent visitor.
In the pecking order of American celebrity, Ivanka's standing was given a significant boost last week when one of her main rivals, Paris Hilton, took a knock. Hilton's grandfather declared he would be giving 97% of his £2.3bn fortune to charity. Paris was instantly demoted from America's richest heiress to the ranks of the merely super-rich.
The changing of the celebrity guard will be a sweet moment for Trump, who has long resented comparisons between her and Hilton, noting that "I work 13-hour days for my money".
There is, however, more than a nod to the Hilton-esque celebrity culture.
Trump junior has declared – a la Hilton – that she is prepared to use everything she has, including her body, in the drive for more business success.
"I'm 26 and I tell myself: 'Why not have a little fun with that?'" she declared.
In recent months, Trump has posed semi-clad in middle-shelf lads' mags and was photographed in Harper's Bazaar, reclining in a dress slit to her thighs as a burly half-naked construction worker pounded a jackhammer at her feet.
Asked whether the antics prompted people to question her business competence, she declared: "I'm fine with that. It's the end result that counts."
Trump junior graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004, and set about proving her business acumen by making her name outside the family business.
She is now in charge of developments in Dubai, Mexico and Chicago.
"As a principal of this company, I negotiate all the deals I'm working on," she said.
"If people think I'm just the boss's daughter, they're deceived."
Not content with that, she has also found time to promote her own collection of diamond jewellery, with a top price of £350,000. But her focus will be on her father's work.
"Real estate is my life," she said. "It is my day job, if you will. If people think they can elicit from me whatever terms they want, they are mistaken."
The competitive Trump mettle was bred into her at an early age. She recalled racing down a ski-slope during a family holiday.
"At one point I remember thinking it was rather bizarre that I had started moving backwards up the hill. It took me not too long to realise that my father had hooked his ski pole around the cuff of my unitard. Clearly he wanted to win."
Asked about Hilton's 'party girl' image recently, the 26-year-old adopted a disdainful attitude.
"I think we are totally different individuals. I saw how hard my father worked for his money and it was always made very clear to me that things wouldn't just be given to me," she declared.