Ivanka Trump at L’Auberge Del Mar Resort & Spa, where she recently discussed Trump Ocean Resort.
Inset: Donald Trump, Jr.

Donald Jr. & Ivanka Trump
For the children of Donald Trump, success has always seemed imminent. But when talking with them, one discovers that their success has little to do with silver spoons; it’s a result of drive and acumen. Both Ivanka and Donald Jr. graduated from Wharton College with degrees in economics, and finance and marketing, respectively. Their contributions to the Trump Organization have caused it to swell not only outside of the continental United States, but also overseas. Fresh from the season finale of The Apprentice, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. were kind enough to discuss their life in the public eye and their new development project in Baja: Trump Ocean Resort. (www.trump-baja.com)

Do you feel your childhood was normal?
Ivanka: I guess we didn’t know anything different. We’ve always lived in a little bit of a fishbowl. There have been pros and cons with that, but at the end of the day, I would never complain about the life I’ve been able to live so far.

Don: Our parents brought us up so that we still had a very natural childhood. We learned how fortunate we were and how the other side lived. We didn’t grow up jaded, we were aware of how everything else worked.

What was Dad like as a dad?
Don: A little unconventional. But our parents made sure we were always productive, studying, becoming cultured.

Donald, you’re a new dad, how do you feel about that? [Donald Jr’s wife, Vanessa, recently gave birth to a baby girl, Kai Madison.]
Don: Pretty excited. It’s a big change, and a lot of fun.

Ivanka, I’ve read that you regret modeling. Why is that?
Ivanka: My only regret is that people still focus on it when I’m trying to do other things. But I learned a lot from it. You don’t get much more vicious than a bunch of 16-year-old girls. But real estate was always the end game for me.

Do you feel that you are a role model for young women?
Ivanka: If I am I’m happy. It bothers me when people say they hate bearing that title. I think it’s a great thing if you can be a positive role model for someone. It doesn’t require me to do anything besides work hard and do what I would be doing naturally.

How did you juggle being on the show with your day jobs ?
Don: We’re developers first and foremost. The show was great for the brand but we really have a day job. For us, if we’re out filming, we’re neglecting some aspect of the real estate, and that’s a big no-no. So we slept a little less and did it in our spare time.

Any comments on that season finale?
Ivanka: It was amazing. I looked at my father and Don as we were backstage and we just started laughing. I thought, everyone else is at home with their families eating Chinese food in front of the television, and we’re standing here ready to go live in front of millions of people. When we came out and saw all the fireworks, it was just surreal.

Don: I don’t ever want to be typecast as a reality TV show personality. But looking back on it in another 20 years, an experience like that is pretty cool. It’s something that’s hard to turn down.

Did the contestants understand what was at stake?
Don: They figured it out pretty quickly. Watching the show, you think, 'How hard can it be? They’re making such simple mistakes.’ But when you really see them working days on end without sleep — it really is surprisingly aggressive. Even the losers get something out of it because they understand what hard work is.

Some people criticized the tent aspect. Did it hurt the show?
Ivanka: I think this past season was the most critically acclaimed. Every review we read was very positive. Remember, at the end of that interview process people aren’t there just for television.

And now you’re each working on projects that take the Trump brand outside of the U.S.
Ivanka: It’s our first foray into Mexico. We’ve also got projects in Panama and Dubai. The Baja development is a quarter mile of oceanfront property in some of the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen. It will ultimately be a three-hotel condominium located only 30 minutes south of San Diego.

Don: It’s three buildings, each selling in its own phase. The first building was a record sellout for Mexico, almost $149 million in one day. For someone to buy property on the ocean in Southern California is different than what you can get right across the border. That extra 20 minutes is a huge price differential that allows people to have these kinds of homes.

Will there be other Mexican locales?
Don: I was there for three days last week looking at four different cities. We’re working very carefully with Mexican developers. We think there are going to be many opportunities there.

How many more international developments are you working on? Why go international?
Ivanka: There are so many areas of the world open to us. This is really one of our first international deals. When you’re talking about ten or twelve around the world, it’s really not that many locations. We’re being very disciplined to ensure value in us, and also the end buyer.

Don: We have the opportunity to form something new and enter these markets with modern technology. The best of the best packaging. The only other brands in these areas are hotel brands, the Ritz Carlton and so on. Those guys are outdated. They’ve been there for 30 years when the market was different and required much less. We have the opportunity to develop an incredibly strong hotel brand.

What’s going on in Dubai?
Ivanka: We’re building the flagship of the Palm Island, a 68-story tower designed by Atkins. One of the towers will be a hotel condo, the other will be a combo of residential and commercial space.

What are some future aspirations?
Don: Our father has spent his life creating an incredible brand. It’s our goal to take that further, to take it outside the New York-centric model and build internationally. In many respects we’re still a mom and pop family-type shop, despite the quantity of projects. It’s been left to us to expand the brand, to expand into a hotel company, into a resort developer. We have an amazing opportunity that we plan on being very successful with.
— Ryan Thomas, photography by Vincent Knakal and Jim Spellman/WireImage