US elections: Ivanka Trump’s meteoric rise into the president’s inner circle

She has gone from being the girl who hung out in her father’s boardroom to being a key player in the president’s inner circle. Now he has the world in his sights.

If her father ever leaves the White House, Ivanka Trump is predicted to be one of the top contenders to face Joe Biden in 2024, capping a meteoric rise from runway model and socialite to possible leader of the free world.

It’s a journey that sources close to the first family saw coming as the 39-year-old, nicknamed Donald Trump’s favorite daughter, followed in her father’s footsteps throughout her brilliant career.

She has always been very close to her father. When she was just a child, he bragged to elite business executives about how smart he was.

After school, he would attend board meetings, discovering its secrets from an early age.

But his journey in the footsteps of his father really began to take shape when he began studying at Georgetown and the University of Pennsylvania (his father’s alma mater), graduating in 2004 with a degree in economics.

Her business aspirations were clear, but she also started making waves in the fashion world even earlier in her life, modeling for magazines when she was just a teenager.

At the time, it seemed as if he could follow in the footsteps of his fashion designer mother, Trump’s first wife Ivana, who was born in Czechoslovakia.

At 1.8m tall, Ivanka made a striking impression on the runway where she walked for top fashion brands like Versace.

However, it soon became clear that he would not be walking the catwalks for long.

In 2005, she became one half of a powerful couple when she began dating Jared Kushner from a family of real estate moguls and became increasingly interested in her father’s business empire.

The same girl who had been hanging around her father’s boardroom all those years became a clerk a year after earning her stripes in college.

Not content to be a cog in her father’s business, she started doing her own thing in 2007 when she opened her own fine jewelry store on Madison Avenue in New York City. He partnered with a company diamond wholesaler and licensed his name.

After apparent success in retail, she created her own fashion and lifestyle brand, The Ivanka Trump Collection.

In 2013, The New York Times reported that the Ivanka Trump brand sold shoes, handbags and other products worth $ 75 million (NZ $ 110 million) in bulk, making it richer for between $ 4 and $ 5 million.

In that period, it seemed as if he had mastered his father’s famous “deal making” skills while making waves within his empire.

She was the lead negotiator at Trump National Doral Miami, a $ 1 billion property that she managed to obtain for $ 150 million.

Her business success led her to take another page out of her father’s book, literally. Trump had revealed his negotiating secrets in his nonfiction bestseller, The Art of the Deal, back in 1987.

In 2005, Ivanka published The Trump Card, which shared her own experiences and business advice. It also became a New York Times bestseller.

But it wasn’t just bargaining skills that he shared with his father. She picked up on her ego and relentless work ethic from a young age.

She told Harper’s Bazaar in 2007 that she had “a big ego” as a result of her father always testing her.

“Even though I knew I always wanted to do real estate, when I got an offer to work for an amazing fashion magazine, I was like, ‘Oh that’s great. Are you sure you don’t want to go and do that?’ For a while, I got a little discouraged. ‘Don’t you think I have what it takes?’ “He told the magazine.

She told American ABC in 2015 that her father had taught his children “since they were born” that they were “lucky to have had” such a luxurious lifestyle, but that he came with responsibility.

“He was the first to tell us how privileged we are. And with that privilege, how much responsibility we had to win,” he said.

Other reports document her work ethic, stating that she juggled her two worlds in fashion and her father’s business by waking up early each morning at 5.30 a.m. so she could tackle her fashion work before getting on the phone at 9 am

And, as if he hadn’t had enough of working with his father, he became a boardroom judge on his reality TV show, The Apprentice.

It seemed that Ivanka had entered the world of business, fashion and show business, but everything changed for her in 2016 when her father was elected president of the United States.

Despite the fact that her father is seen by many as a divisive figure, sales of her fashion line soared in 2016, up 21% from the previous year.

However, she was considered part of her father’s inner circle even before she was officially named and questions began to arise about conflicts of interest with her fashion line.

While Melania remained in New York City, to stay with her son Barron while he completed the school year, Ivanka moved to Washington DC with her family.

It was a move seen by many as a power play that made her a de facto First Lady.

He left the world of fashion behind in 2018, when he closed the clothing brand due to frustrations over conflicts of interest and increased scrutiny.

The move meant she had more time to focus on her role as a public policy adviser within the Trump administration.

In that role, she focused on the education and economic empowerment of women and their families, as well as job creation and economic growth through workforce development, vocational training and entrepreneurship. She has lobbied for a child tax credit and paid family leave.

She has become one of the president’s most trusted advisers over the years, and has reportedly managed to change her mind on some of his most controversial issues.

He reportedly urged his father to end his family separation immigration policy, in which all adults detained at the United States border for immigration offenses were criminally prosecuted, requiring them to be separated. of the children who accompanied them.

“That was a low point … I’m really sorry,” he told Axios. “I am very much against family separation and the separation of parents and children.”

However, it is clear that she is aligned with her father’s views on many other issues.

As he struggles and refuses to admit the results of this month’s presidential elections, she stands firm by his side and supports his claims of electoral manipulation.

“Every vote cast legally must be counted. Every vote cast illegally should not be counted. This should not be controversial,” he wrote in recent days on his Twitter page.

“This is not a partisan statement: free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy.”

It’s unclear how long this situation will continue, but in all likelihood the president will have to give in soon, and if that happens, the focus will turn to Ivanka’s strategy once the family leaves the White House in January.

A return to reality television or a return to the world of fashion could be options for her when that happens. But you could also be making much bigger plans.

A Facebook page titled “Ivanka for President 2024” has popped up, and many Republican supporters reportedly want to see a member of the Trump family take on Biden again in 2024, with Ivanka a favorite if her father is ruled out of the race. race.

It would be a huge step up from the former model-turned-entrepreneur extraordinaire, but her backers believe she has the insider knowledge and experience to make it work.

And since you’ve followed in your father’s footsteps for so long, it might seem like the next logical step in your story.