Ivanka Trump cuts interview short after questions over father's 'pregnancy is inconvenient for business' quote

'I'm going to jump off, I have to run,' eldest daughter of the Republican presidential candidate says

Mr Trump’s maternity signals a clear break from his other policies and the wider Republican stance on maternity leave (Rex)

Ivanka Trump has cut a phone interview with Cosmopolitan short after being probed about her father’s past assertion that pregnancy was an “inconvenience for business”.

The eldest daughter of the republican presidential candidate has been at the forefront of Donald Trump’s new child care and maternity leave plan and helped him unveil the policy in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night. She also wrote a column outlining the specifics of the policy, which offers new mothers six weeks of paid maternity leave and tax deductions for stay-at-home parents, in the Wall Street Journal.

Mr Trump’s plan signals a clear break from his other policies and the wider Republican stance on maternity leave and has been judged as an attempt to boost his image among female voters by media commentators.

In a Cosmopolitan interview on Wednesday, Ms Trump was asked how the new policy plan tallied with his 2004 comments about pregnancy being an inconvenient thing for a business. Speaking to NBC, the billionaire businessman said pregnancy was “a wonderful thing for the woman, it's a wonderful thing for the husband, it's certainly an inconvenience for a business. And whether people want to say that or not, the fact is it is an inconvenience for a person that is running a business.”

Ms Trump, a 34-year-old executive at the Trump Organization and mother-of-three, dodged the question about his past statement, arguing it had a “negative” slant and later accusing the interviewer Prachi Gupta of “editorializing”.

“So I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions,” she said. “And I think my father has put forth a very comprehensive and really revolutionary plan to deal with a lot of issues. So I don't know how useful it is to spend too much time with you on this if you're going to make a comment like that.”

“My father obviously has a track record of decades of employing women at every level of his company, and supporting women, and supporting them in their professional capacity, and enabling them to thrive outside of the office and within,” she continued.

When further probed about his past statement, she retorted: “Well, you said he made those comments. I don't know that he said those comments.”

After two more questions, Ms Trump brought the interview to an abrupt halt, saying: “I'm going to jump off, I have to run. I apologize.”

The Independent contacted a representative for Ms Trump for comment.