Ivanka Trump’s ambitions seek new home after White House
Ivanka Trump has always been a business executive with a keen eye for marketing — whether that be real estate, moderately priced shoes or handbags. After she leaves the White House with her father, those who know the family said she could soon embark on a new venture: selling herself to American voters.
It’s unclear where exactly Ms. Trump and her husband — Jared Kushner, who like his wife is a senior White House adviser — will physically land after they are expected to leave Washington in January. Some anticipate the couple will return to their old home of New York, while others speculate they may relocate to a “cottage” at the president’s Bedminster golf course in New Jersey.
But former friends, colleagues and associates of the couple believe wherever they live, the first daughter will be contemplating how to maximize her political capital — whether that means an actual run for office, or a gauzier influence in Republican circles in a world where President Donald Trump still holds enormous political sway.
It’s clear that some in and fallen from Trumpworld in New York — where “Not Wanted” fliers have cropped up around the city and Lincoln Project billboards in Times Square caused the couple to threaten a lawsuit — don’t want to see that happen.
“I am happy to shed light on them to keep them as far away from our political realm as possible,” said Marissa Velez Kraxberger, a film producer and the former creative director at Ms.
Trump’s now-defunct namesake company, who called the president’s eldest daughter “identical” to her father and voted for Joe Biden.
“I think she’d want to be the [first] female president,” Ms. Kraxberger said, reflecting on her two years working with Ms. Trump. “I don’t think she’s actually ever had any interest in fashion, but everything was an angle to gain more power in whatever possible way.”
Ms. Trump has dodged questions about whether she plans to run for political office. But over her four years as a senior White House adviser, she has completed a stunning transformation from a publicly liberal New Yorker who some hoped would serve as a restraining influence on her father to an “unapologetically” “prolife” advocate of the Make America Great Again agenda — a “proud Trump Republican,” as she told Fox News earlier this year.
Interviews with over a dozen sources painted a picture of a woman who, much like her father, is interested in leveraging the platform and global relationships she gleaned from her starring role in Washington.
“I think she’s impressive and most people see she’s impressive and if she wants to stay involved with politics, people will take her with open arms. But staying involved with politics is different than running for office,” remarked a former White House official.
The White House did not respond to a request for an interview with Ms. Trump.
“While the media seems only interested in covering trite topics and perpetuating idle gossip, Ivanka continues to focus on her policy priorities fighting for American workers and their families,” deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement.
Nonetheless, Trumpworld could be seeking the next heir apparent once the
president leaves office, though he is still baselessly insisting the election he lost to Mr. Biden was somehow rigged.
Mr. Trump has personally expressed an interest in running again in 2024, though that would likely be from his perch at his Mar-aLago Club in Florida. But the next generation of Trumps could also eye the throne, including both Ivanka and her brother, Don Jr., who was popular on the road at MAGA rallies.
While earlier in the Trump administration, Ms. Trump denied interest in a 2024 presidential run, pollsters have included her name in surveys for a hypothetical Republican presidential primary pool that excludes her father. She notched 4 percentage points of likely 2024 general election voters in a McLaughlin & Associates/Newsmax poll released at the end of last month, falling behind Vice President Mike Pence; Donald Trump Jr.; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley; and Sen. Mitt Romney, RUtah.
Others who know and have worked with the family warn that Ms. Trump would not easily be able to shed the baggage of her father’s presidency. That became clearer after The New York Times reported Tuesday that the president is discussing with his advisers whether to grant preemptive pardons to his children, his son-in-law and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Ms. Trump isn’t known to be a part of any federal investigations; such a presidential pardon would not apply to state probes.
But any whiff of legal trouble could stand as a roadblock to a political future.
“There’s too much potential dirt that she doesn’t want released,” said Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal attorney who pleaded guilty in 2018 in two separate criminal cases related to his work for the Trump campaign and organization. “It’s easy to say, ‘I’m doing this, I’m doing that,‘ but it’s different to put your entire life out there for the media to excoriate you.”
“Everyone is saying that she’s running for office, and that’s the ultimate compliment for her,” said a source who runs in the couple’s New York social circle. “Her recent stance as pro-life was making her ambitions very clear that she is laying the groundwork” for a political future in Republican politics, said the source.
This person added there “will definitely be a power struggle between [Ivanka] and her brother [Donald Trump Jr.], who is obviously more connected to the base,” and one of the GOP’s top fundraisers.
Several of those interviewed described watching Ms. Trump’s speech at the 2020 Republican convention as a moment they recognized her full potential, as she called herself “the proud daughter of the people’s president” before describing her father as an empathetic and bipartisan leader.
“I think from a personality profile she’s just like her dad and has a high opinion of herself and they tend to be ambitious, regardless of whatthey do,” a Trump campaign source added.