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Ina recent Oval Office interview, PresidentDonald Trumphad only good things to say about his five children. But it was eldest daughterIvanka Trump, one of his senior aides, whom he said was “unique.”
“If she ever wanted to run for president, I think she’d be very, very hard to beat,” he toldThe Atlanticina profile of Ivankapublished on Friday.
Of his other kids, he said, “Barronis young, but he’s got wonderful potential. AndTiffany’s doing extremely well.Donis, uh, he’s enjoying politics; actually, it’s very good. AndEricis running the business along with Don and also very much into politics. I mean, the children — the children have been very, very good.”
Ivanka, 37, is ” a natural diplomat,” the president gushed. “She would’ve been great at the United Nations, as an example.”
“I even thought of Ivanka for the World Bank … She would’ve been great at that because she’s very good with numbers,” he said.
Tellingly, President Trump said in hisAtlanticinterview that he was warded off from a U.N. nomination for Ivanka because of the potential criticism of nepotism — the very thing that has most dogged her White House role since 2017.
Critics say Ivanka is a self-interested hypocrite, providing a pleasing front to an administration whose policies she at least tacitly abets, except for mild and strategically deployed complaints.
Inside the White House, Ivanka has honed in on primarily economic and family issues and the press team is quick to trumpet her work and messaging on jobs and taxes.
She once described herself to theNew York Timesas a “moderating force,”according to the paper’s paraphrase. But she has either declined to publicly comment on some of her father’s most incendiary behavior or, behind the scenes, has unsuccessfully lobbied him to soften his positions (as with the Paris Agreement on climate change) or reportedly even defended him to other aides (as with his remarks about white nationalists).
Like her famously image-conscious father, Ivanka takes particular care with how she is perceived. Her temperament drew her father’s praise: He toldThe Atlanticshe has “a great calmness” and “a tremendous presence when she walks into the room.”
“She’s got a great calmness … I’ve seen her under tremendous stress and pressure,” he said. “She reacts very well — that’s usually a genetic thing, but it’s one of those things, nevertheless.”
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Ivanka, meanwhile,avoided the campaign trailleading up to last year’s midterms.
The president described the evolution of her White House role in nebulous terms.
“I asked Trump how he had envisioned Ivanka’s role,”The Atlantic‘s Elaina Plott writes. “‘So I didn’t know,’” he said without pause. “’I’m not suresheknew.’ ”
Of her economic focus, her father said, “She went into the whole helping-people-with-jobs, and I wasn’t sure that was going to be the best use of her time, but I didn’t know how successful she’d be.”
The president hand-waved away their disagreement on climate change with a subtle rebuke.
“Ivanka was in favor of staying in [the Paris Agreement]. She expressed it, but I’m not sure she knew it as well as I did,” he said. “I’m not sure she knew the costs of it … You know, that was one of my easier decisions, actually.”
source: people.com
