The owner of trendy Washington-area gym chain Solidcore lashed out at Ivanka Trump over Facebook on Thursday now says her post was intended to set up private classes for the daughter of President Trump.
“I reached out to Ivanka in hopes of having a discussion about our community, and to suggest that we set up private classes for her in the future, which is what we have done for other high-profile clients. Ivanka is welcome at [Solidcore] and we hope she comes back,” Solidcore founder Anne Mahlum said in a statement released Friday evening.
“[Solidcore] is an organization founded on inclusivity and it’s unfortunate that my Facebook post asking Ivanka Trump to meet with me failed to communicate that commitment to openness. I take full responsibility for that failure,” Mahlum added.
“It’s important to know that at no point did I say that Ivanka would not be able to attend [Solidcore] classes and service was not denied to her. Our clients represent a spectrum of different races, religions, sexual orientations and political beliefs, all of whom are welcome here proudly.”
“What you do when you find out Ivanka Trump just took [Solidcore], but used an alias to sign up for class? You reach out and ask for a meeting,” wrote Anne Mahlum, founder of Solidcore.
Mahlum’s original Facebook post was no longer visible as of Friday afternoon.
Mahlum opened her first Solidcore gym in 2013 and has since expanded throughout the D.C., Maryland and Virginia region, and throughout the country. As of late 2016, Solidcore employed 16 full-time employees and more than 100 part-time employees and contractors.
Ivanka Trump had been laying relatively low since moving to Washington with her husband, Jared Kushner, and three children, until this week when her father’s administration took up her cause after Nordstrom dropped her clothing line.
President Trump first tweeted Wednesday that Nordstrom had treated his daughter “so unfairly,” repeating the message across his social media platforms and raising initial ethics concerns. Nordstrom cited poor sales in announcing its decision, which also came after customer complaints about the brand’s association with the Republican president.
Asked about the president’s statement on TV Thursday morning, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said she does “find it ironic that you’ve got some executives all over the Internet bragging about what they’ve done to her and her line … to get to him.”
“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would tell you … I hate shopping, I’m going to go get some myself today,” Conway said. “This is just a wonderful line. I own some of it. I fully — I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.”
Conway’s statement caused an immediate uproar for appearing to blatantly violate federal ethics standards for encouraging consumers to financially support a private sector business. Late Thursday, the House Ethics Committee called for an ethics review.
Ivanka Trump has not issued a statement on the fallout.
