The Ivanka-fication of Lara Trump

The 41-year-old, now firmly in the family fold, has become the president-elect’s new right-hand woman and confidante

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When Lara Trump began dating Eric after they met at a Manhattan bar in 2008, she viewed herself as an “outsider”, firmly on the peripheries of the tight-knit Trump family unit.
Yearning to fit in, Lara wondered whether she should aspire to be more like Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s eldest daughter.
Now, more than 15 years later, Lara is firmly in the family fold, having quite literally replaced Ivanka as the president-elect’s right-hand woman and confidante.
When Mr Trump made his victory speech at Mar-a-Lago as his landslide election victory sharpened into focus, it was Lara, 41, who stood next to him, beaming in a sheer black long-sleeved top and black trousers.
While once Ivanka was seen as the heir apparent to the Republican’s political dynasty, when she stepped back from politics in the wake of his 2020 election loss she left a narrow 5ft 11 hole.
Enter Lara, who also towers at 5ft 11, and could soon become the only other Trump to hold elected office.
Calls are growing for the Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chairwoman to replace Marco Rubio in the Senate if he is confirmed as Secretary of State.
If Mr Rubio is plucked out of Florida to join Mr Trump’s administration, governor Ron DeSantis would be tasked with selecting his replacement until the 2026 election.
The mother-of-two, who flirted with the idea of running for Senate in 2022 in her native North Carolina, appeared keen on the idea, telling Fox News: “I would love to consider it.”
Her confident political posturing comes after Mr Trump asked his daughter-in-law to run to become RNC co-chairwoman earlier this year, insisting he needed to have someone he trusts in the role.
Ivanka, 43, was once in the centre of Mr Trump’s orbit, serving in his first administration. She was the trusted surrogate to address rallies, to deliver speeches at the RNC and drum-up female support on his first two campaigns.
It had been Ivanka who had introduced her father as he descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015. Her Instagram page was saturated with photos of her standing on podiums with him across the country.
But the mother-of-three and her husband Jared Kushner stepped back from the “political arena” in January 2021 and have since embarked on a life of surfing, Brazilian jiu jitsu and wholesome family moments in their Miami mansion.
Now it is Lara’s social media which is bursting with political support for Mr Trump. It was Lara who was given a prime time slot at this year’s RNC and it was Lara who stood next to Mr Trump on that stage in Palm Beach on election night.
The president-elect first noted Lara was a “tough cookie” when she refused to wear casts for her wedding at Mar-a-Lago three weeks after she broke both her wrists when she was thrown from a horse.
But he is said to have noticed his daughter-in-law’s political potential when he heard her giving an interview in the run up to the 2016 election.
Lara, who was named after Julie Christie’s Lara Antipova in the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago, was soon asked to ramp up support in her native North Carolina for the Trump campaign in 2016.
The former pastry chef was also sent out on the campaign trail for the 2020 election and delivered remarks at that year’s RNC.
But her most pivotal role came when she received a call from Mr Trump asking her to take the reins at the RNC.
In the plum position, Lara helped pull in hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising, was the face of the “protect the vote” effort to recruit volunteers for election day and she also impressed on Mr Trump that he should encourage his supporters to vote by mail-in ballot.
The couple’s children, Eric Luke, seven, and Carolina, five, even had starring roles on the campaign when they were brought on stage during a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Lifting up his blonde-haired granddaughter, Mr Trump told the crowd: “Her name is Carolina and she’s beautiful and she’s sweet and she doesn’t know how evil life is – she hasn’t experienced it yet.”
The little girl then told the crowd to “make America great again”, and her elder brother urged the supporters to “vote for grandpa”.
With Ivanka firmly out of the picture, Lara has slotted perfectly into her svelte silhouette, and her political aspirations do not appear to be short sighted.
Asked in July whether she would want to carry the MAGA torch when her father-in-law eventually leaves politics, she told Time: “Never say never with a Trump… I would never say never to anything.”
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