As Donald Trump’s prospects soar, Ivanka is slowly returning to the national stage
Ivanka Trump will return to the national stage. According to her spokesperson and two sources close to the Trump campaign, Donald TrumpTrump’s eldest daughter plans to attend the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week to personally show support for her father. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Ivanka’s presence at the convention would mark a dramatic return to the campaign trail that she has conspicuously avoided this election cycle. She is famous for ignoring her father. Low Energy Campaign Launch at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022 and released a statement at the time saying: “I choose to prioritize my young children and the private life we are building as a family. I have no plans to enter politics.” She also did not attend his recent criminal trial in Manhattan, where he sentenced of 34 felonies.
For some observers, Ivanka has acted as a political weather vane. Early in the Republican primaries, many interpreted her absence from the campaign trail as a sign that Trump faced insurmountable headwinds: Trump-backed candidates were being blown away in the 2022 midterm elections; billionaire Republican donors like Ken Griffin And Stephen Schwarzman declare that they will support a non-Trump candidate in 2024; and Rupert Murdoch‘S New York Post Office posted a photo of DeSantis on the cover with the headline “DeFuture.” (Meanwhile, parcel mock Trump’s 2024 campaign launched with a front-page story headlined “Florida Man Makes Announcement,” the story is on page 26.)
That was then. Trump will be inaugurated in Milwaukee next week. Meanwhile, Democrats remain paralyzed about what to do about it. Joe Bidenapparent cognitive decline and failed candidacy. Trump’s campaign, at least privately, feeling confident that Trump will win by a landslide if Biden stays in the race. In other words, Ivanka will jump on a wagon that is expected to win. One source said Trump is upset that Ivanka waited until now to get involved. “He doesn’t like the way she takes credit and disappears when things get tough,” the source said. But another source close to Ivanka disputed this, saying that Trump himself asked Ivanka to speak at the convention. Ivanka’s polished demeanor would likely appeal to independents and women, voters Trump has not favored. However, Ivanka’s spokesperson confirmed that she will not speak.
Coincidentally or not, Ivanka has been ramping up her public profile lately. On July 2, podcaster Lex Fridman release a three hour interview with Ivanka (Fridman said the two became friends over a shared love of reading philosophers like Joseph Campbell, Marcus Aurelius, Alan Watts, and Viktor Frankl). Ivanka reiterated on the podcast that she has no plans to formally join the campaign. “Politics, it’s a pretty dark world…. It’s really antithetical to what I feel good about as a human being,” she said.
But the sources I spoke to wondered whether Ivanka could resist the pull of power if Trump returned to the White House. After all, her husband, Jared Kushner, maybe is considered to take over as Trump’s secretary of state.
This article has been updated to confirm that Ivanka Trump will not be speaking at the conference.
