Ivanka Trump said the president felt “very vindicated” by former FBI director James Comey’s testimony last week, in an interview with Fox News on Monday morning. She also said her father is “incredibly optimistic” following the congressional testimony, in which Comey claimed Trump had directed him to shut down an investigation into a former senior White House official, and lied to smear Comey after he was fired.

Trump’s comments to Fox and Friends echoed those made by her father last Friday, when he said the testimony was a “total and complete vindication”. But she said she was not prepared for the “viciousness” that came with working in the White House.

“It is hard. There’s a level of viciousness that I was not expecting,” Trump said. “I was not expecting the intensity of this experience, but this isn’t supposed to be easy. My father and this administration intends to be transformative, and we want to do big, bold things, and we’re looking to change the status quo. “I think some of the distractions and some of the ferocity, I was a little blindsided by on a personal level. For me, I’m trying to keep my head down and not listen to the noise, and just work hard to make a positive impact on the lives of many people.”(guardian)…[+]