Ivanka Trump Is Celebrating Valentine’s Day In The Most Family Friendly Way

Before leaving her house on Wednesday, Ivanka Trump kicked off Valentine's Day with her kids, Arabella and Joseph. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, she posted a photo to her Instagram story, and the kids were still in their pajamas as Joseph held a tray of heart-shaped cookies. She captioned the photo "Valentine's Day treats" — and it's not the first time such treats have been part of her Valentine's Day celebration.

Back in 2016, Ivanka shared a photo of heart-shaped frosted cookies featuring her name alongside her husband Jared Kushner's. She also shared another photo at the time of Arabella holding up the plate. Neither Ivanka nor Kushner has shared any other information about how they plan to spend their Valentine's Day this year, but they are both slated to appear at the Winter Olympics closing ceremony in PyeongChang next weekend.

Ivanka appeared to eschew the tradition of baking Valentine's Day cookies last year in favor of tweeting a video with a pair of heart-shaped balloons, but she and her husband regularly share such activities with their kids. Back in December, for example, Ivanka and Kushner baked cookies and went ice skating with Arabella and Joseph for Hanukkah.

Nonetheless, Tuesday seemed to be business as usual for Ivanka, who attended meetings with business owners and Republican state legislators in Pittsburgh. She was there to discuss and promote the tax cuts her father had signed into law, and did not talk about Valentine's Day.

Ivanka's Instagram story of her children baking cookies came not long after Stephen Colbert published a White House Valentine's Day video, imagining what the president's Valentine's card to the First Lady might sound like. As there were no episodes of The Late Show this week, Colbert used the opportunity to instead release a video in which President Trump tries multiple times to convey his love for Melania but quickly grows distracted thinking about his victory in this presidential election.

As a close adviser to the president, Ivanka has attended a variety of meetings with domestic and international leaders. She has been widely criticized for this, especially after she briefly took a seat with other world leaders at last summer's G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. But the criticism she has faced may be the least of her concerns this Valentine's Day; Politico reported on Tuesday that she and Kushner have apparently accrued millions of dollars in debt over the past year, during their time working for the current administration.

Ivanka has been a public figure for a long time — having worked as both a model and businesswoman — but she has been in the public spotlight even more frequently ever since her father took office. In the early days of the current administration, there was often speculation that Ivanka would be the lone voice of reason in her father's administration, though this speculation frequently appeared to overestimate the amount of power and influence Ivanka actually had.

Ivanka has been careful to craft an impermeable brand over the years. She frequently posts pictures of her family and her children to social media, making it clear that her personal relationships have been unaffected by her work and public life. This Valentine's Day, which started with her baking cookies with her children, has not been an exception.