President Donald Trump has a clear favorite to take the reins of his MAGA movement — but his top pick is too smart to take on the challenge, according to an analyst.
Trump wants his heir to be his daughter Ivanka after he's gone, wrote The i Paper's Sarah Baxter.
Ivanka, however, has kept her distance. "I do not plan to be involved in politics," she said when her father announced his 2024 campaign — and she's remained absent from much of his second administration — despite having a pivotal role as a senior adviser in the first.
"If he could hand-pick his political and showbiz heir, it would be Ivanka," wrote Baxter Saturday.
"According to the book Apprentice in Wonderland (2024), when Trump left the show to run for president, he wanted his daughter to take it over. 'I didn’t press it,' he reportedly said. 'But I felt Ivanka would have been by far the best person you could hire.'"
She added, "Trump has done all he can to smooth her path with the experience and money needed to become America’s first woman president. Her husband Jared Kushner, also a former White House adviser, made a cool $2bn with Saudi investors on leaving office. He returned this year as a special “peace envoy” and leading Iran negotiator while continuing to do business in the Middle East.
"I don’t doubt Jared would be delighted to serve as First Gentleman and consigliere to President Ivanka Trump, but they are both too smart to set their sights on the near future.
"With Trump at a low ebb – 55 per cent of Americans say they feel worse off, the worst number for 25 years, according to Gallup – 2028 may be a 'change' election. If Ivanka runs, it is likely to be when hostility to Trump has faded and nostalgia sets in."
Her brothers are apparently champing at the bit for the chance to take over the Oval Office, Baxter wrote. Eric Trump told the Financial Times last year, "I think I could do it. And, by the way, I think other members of our family could do it too." Don Jr, meanwhile, has said: "I'm used to getting up on a stage with a mic and talking to ten, fifteen thousand people."
But Trump seems unimpressed, Baxter wrote. "He’s a good guy. He’d be probably good," was his less than glowing endorsement of his son Don Jr. this week as he was announced to the be the face of an Amazon remake of the reality show The Apprentice.