Queen Elizabeth and the Crown Prince of Bahrain treated Jared Kusher to lavish gifts … but here’s why they won’t be gracing Ivanka Trump’s home

Aug 14 , 2021

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were lavished with gifts from world leaders – but which did they decide not to keep? Photo: @ivankatrump/Instagram

The most recent US federal gift register reveals details of what various foreign leaders gave to members of the United States government in 2019. Officials have the option to buy the items they want to keep (if it’s valued at more than US$365), otherwise it goes into the National Archives and Records Administration.

Here are the gifts Jared Kushner received that likely would have looked great at Chez Trump-Kushner, but which he instead chose not to bring home to Ivanka …

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From Bahrain: a clock engraved with a coat of arms

Jared Kushner and Donald Trump. Photo: @ivankatrump/Instagram

Kushner, who was Donald Trump’s adviser on the Middle East, received a clock engraved with the coat of arms of Bahrain in September 2019.

Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa – also the Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister of the kingdom – made the gesture the same month Trump announced a peace deal with Bahrain and Israel. The peace deal came after Kushner visited the country earlier that year to hold a summit that was given credit for helping broker the deal.

The clock was the most expensive gift on Kushner’s list, valued at US$3,200, but he clearly didn’t like it enough to take it home.

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From the United Kingdom: a signed photograph

Ivanka Trump is notoriously house proud and loves interior design – is that why certain gifts to Jared Kushner didn’t make the cut? Photo: @ivankatrump/Instagram

Kushner’s second priciest present that year did not make it home either. When the Trumps visited England in June 2019, Queen Elizabeth gave Kushner a signed photograph worth US$2,830 – something others joining him on the state trip also received. Trump’s other adviser, Kellyanne Conway – whose daughter Claudia has been very vocal about her distaste for Trump – nevertheless chose to buy and keep her gift from the monarch.

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Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner on a state visit to the UK in June 2019, in London. The queen and Prince Philip gave several of the Trump party signed photographs. Photo: Getty Images

The late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, also gave Kushner a signed photograph which was valued at US$1,690.

From South Korea: a porcelain vase

In their roles as senior advisers to the Trump administration, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner visited the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas in June 2019. Photo: Reuters

Donald Trump made history in June 2019 when he became the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea, and was joined on the trip (where he met with Kim Jong-un) by his daughter Ivanka and her husband Kushner. During the visit, which Ivanka called “surreal”, Kushner was gifted a porcelain vase from President Moon Jae-in.

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While he accepted the item so as not to “cause embarrassment” (listed as the reason on the gift register), he didn’t personally keep it. No further clues are given as to why Kushner didn’t keep the beautiful vase, but Ivanka told Glamour in 2008 that her “mother and father both have a distinctive style … and the homes I grew up in definitely played a large role in determining my taste”. Perhaps it simply wasn’t her cup of tea.

Ivanka takes decor so seriously that according to Glamour she staged an intervention when she learned that her assistant Darcy McNutt’s apartment was “not pretty”, and gave it a full makeover complete with gorgeous flea market finds and floral arrangements.

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A vase made by Ivanka Trump’s daughter takes pride of place on the family’s windowsill in New York. Photo: @invankatrump/Instagram

Or perhaps Ivanka simply prefers to showcase her children’s artworks instead, as evidenced by her showing off this vase that her daughter made her for Mother’s Day.

President Moon Jae-in’s vase value? US$700; daughter’s pottery workshop vase? Priceless.

From India: a sterling silver candle holder

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump welcomed lndian prime minister Narendra Modi to the US in 2019. Photo: @ivankatrump/Instagram

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi visited the United States in September 2019 and even held a rally in Houston, Texas, where Donald Trump made a guest appearance. The visit scored Kushner a sterling silver candle holder. His wife Ivanka knows a thing or two about candles, mind you, even selling one in the Trump Store named Dream and Do.

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Candles already feature in Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s home, so it seems paying US$650 for yet another wasn’t on the cards for the couple. Photo: @ivankatrump/Instagram

After Ivanka converted to Judaism to marry Kushner, candles hold a particular significance as part of their faith. Still, Kushner opted not to keep the Indian PM’s gift, despite it being valued at US$650.

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Luxury Spend It

As an adviser to Donald Trump in 2019, Kushner got dozens of gifts from world leaders, including a sterling silver candle holder from Indian PM Narendra Modi
The late Prince Philip gave him a signed photograph while Salman, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, gave him an engraved clock – so why didn’t he keep any of them?