Ivanka Trump is set to return to the national stage. According to her spokesperson and two sources close to the Trump campaign, Donald Trump’s eldest daughter is planning to attend next week’s 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee 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 famously skipped her father’s low-energy campaign launch at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022 and released a statement at the time declaring: “I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics.” She also did not attend his recent criminal trial in Manhattan, which saw him convicted of 34 felony counts.
To some observers, Ivanka has served as something of a political weather vane. Early in the GOP primary, many interpreted her absence from the campaign as a sign that Trump faced insurmountable headwinds: Trump-endorsed candidates were blown out in the 2022 midterms; billionaire Republican donors like Ken Griffin and Stephen Schwarzman announced that they would support a non-Trump candidate in 2024; and Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post splashed a photo of DeSantis on the cover with the headline “DeFuture.” (Meanwhile, the Post mocked Trump’s 2024 rollout with the front-page teaser “Florida Man Makes Announcement,” story on page 26.)
That was then. Next week Trump will be coronated in Milwaukee. Democrats, meanwhile, remain paralyzed over what to do about Joe Biden’s evident cognitive decline and failing candidacy. The Trump campaign is, privately at least, feeling confident that Trump will win in a landslide if Biden stays in the race. In other words, Ivanka would be jumping on a bandwagon that looks destined for victory. One source said Trump is annoyed that Ivanka would wait until now to get involved. “He didn’t like how she took credit for things and disappeared when things got tough,” the source said. But another source close to Ivanka disputed this, saying Trump himself has been asking Ivanka to speak at the convention. Ivanka’s polished mien would presumably appeal to independents and women, voters with whom Trump polls poorly. However, Ivanka’s spokesperson confirmed that she will not be speaking.
Coincidentally or not, Ivanka has been boosting her public profile recently. On July 2, podcaster Lex Fridman released a three-hour interview with Ivanka (Fridman said the two became friends over their shared love of reading philosophers like Joseph Campbell, Marcus Aurelius, Alan Watts, and Viktor Frankl). Ivanka reiterated on the podcast that she doesn’t plan to formally join the campaign. “Politics, it’s a pretty dark world…. It’s just really at odds with what feels good for me as a human being,” she said.
But sources I talked to wonder if Ivanka would be able to resist the pull of power should Trump return to the White House. After all, her husband, Jared Kushner, could be under consideration to serve as Trump’s secretary of state.
This article was updated with confirmation that Ivanka Trump will not give a speech at the convention.
