As President-elect Donald Trump assembles a top staff and cabinet for his second administration, there are notable absences: his children.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, were omnipresent in his first term – firmly located in West Wing offices and often credited (or blamed) for their decisions.
The 2024 campaign changed the guards with Ivanka Trump and Kushner. Step back over the edge In Florida, Trump’s sons are playing a more meaningful role in the political operation.
Donald Trump Jr. — With the help of his younger brother Eric — aggressively lobbied his father to select Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his vice presidential running mate and asserted himself during the transition. And Trump’s youngest son, Barron, helped craft a podcast-rich campaign strategy. Helped win over young male voters.
No son will accompany his father to the White House. Trump Jr. is focused on outside interests, including his own podcast. Eric Trump is in charge of the family’s Trump Organization business. Baron Trump is an 18-year-old college student.
Kushner, meanwhile, makes behind-the-scenes suggestions and seeks advice from incoming members of Trump’s team, people familiar with his involvement told NBC News. But neither he nor Ivanka Trump are expected to play a formal role in the White House.
The couple’s view is that time-consuming jobs in Washington have “taken a huge toll” on their family life in the past, said a former senior Trump White House official, who, like others, has observations about domestic and family dynamics. Anonymized for sharing. The person added that as Trump heads into a new term, he is surrounded by more and more people, with less need for his daughter and son-in-law to join him.
This calculation of the role Trump family members will play in his second administration is based on interviews with 10 people familiar with the dynamics.
Currently, the only family members on deck to join the second Trump administration are more distant in-laws. Trump last weekend announced plans to nominate Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, Ambassador to France and Appointing Massad Boulos – father-in-law of his youngest daughter, Tiffany Trump – as a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
“President Trump’s family is beloved by the American people,” Trump spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt wrote in an email. “They have faced unprecedented challenges, witch hunts, and lawsuits and have stood by the president-elect because they believe in his mission to make America great again. Whether formal or informal. , the President’s family will always play an important role in his administration.
Trump himself has pointed to the scrutiny of his family members during and after his first administration as reasons why he does not want to appoint them to other positions.
“My family has been through hell” He said in a June 2023 interview with Fox News.
People close to Trump and his family say the absence of family members from senior roles reflects several other factors. The broader Republican Party, which eight years ago was filled with skeptics who could do mischief for Trump, is fully on board with him. And the family has deep trust in the governing partners and political advisers who now surround Trump.
“Unlike the first time, the entire Republican Party is with him,” said one Trump ally. “So the family doesn’t need to be his team of loyal advisers and gatekeepers.”
A person close to the Trump family agreed.
“The family was so involved last time, in part, because there was mistrust with the campaign people and the political people in charge,” the person said. “I think the biggest thing that has changed is that the family feels confident and comfortable with the leadership.”
The person added that Trump’s children and his wife, Melania, are particularly confident in incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who co-managed the campaign.
“Suzy ran the best campaign of her three campaigns, and she will run the best White House she’s ever had,” said a former senior Trump White House official. “He’s had four chiefs of staff. Susie has been groomed to be the best of them all.
Nevertheless, Trump’s children will remain close and influential in his orbit.
Donald Trump Jr., who has kept a busy campaign schedule this year for his father and for down-ballot candidates backed by his father, has developed a close relationship with Vance, who is expected to be Trump’s successor. But it is a safe bet to contest. Four years
“We’re getting four more years of Trump and then eight years of JD Vance!” Trump Jr. said at a campaign event for Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, in October.
Eric Trump will continue as executive vice president of the Trump Organization and “run every aspect of the hotel, golf, commercial, residential, retail and other related holdings,” Kimberly Benza, the company’s director of executive operations and communications, said in an email. Wrote in the mail. .
His wife, Lara Trump, is currently co-chair of the Republican National Committee. And if Trump’s world has her way, she’ll take over the soon-to-be-vacated seat held by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whom Trump wants to nominate for secretary of state.
Members of the Trump family and key allies such as billionaire Elon Musk have publicly pushed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to appoint Rubio’s successor — a post that would have made him a family member early in Trump’s second term. Can make a family member with very practical political influence.
“I think she understands our base. She understands the movement,” Trump Jr. said in an interview with Fox News last month. “You see what’s happening in Florida. I mean, it’s a solid red state. We’ve flipped counties that we lost by 30 and 40 points in 2016, and now they’re positive for Trump.
Adviser to DeSantis told NBC News last month Lara Trump is being considered, but other DeSantis allies are also on the short list. The governor, whose relationship with Trump soured after he challenged him for the GOP presidential nomination this year, could run for president again in 2028.
“I don’t think DeSantis knows there’s any question what the position is,” said a Trump ally familiar with the family’s thinking. “They’re two different ways to go with it, and that’s going to say a lot.”
The changing of the guard
The influence Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner wielded during the first Trump administration will be hard to top.
The couple were among the first on equal footing after surviving the palace intrigues and infighting that created constant turnover among Trump’s senior aides. While four chiefs of staff have come and gone, Kushner and Ivanka Trump stayed until the end. Kushner worked out of an office not far from the Oval Office, while Ivanka Trump worked from a third-floor office in the West Wing.
Kushner had a broad policy portfolio during Trump’s first administration, ranging from the Middle East to the administration’s pandemic relief efforts. He helped his father-in-law in the Abraham Accords, a breakthrough in Middle East relations in which Israel normalized relations with various Arab countries.
Now, the president-elect calls Kushner periodically to get his opinion on certain potential jobs, the former senior White House official said. The person added that Kushner has also spent time talking to Steven Witkoff, whom Trump tapped to be special envoy for the Middle East, helping him “accelerate” a part of the world. Helped to rise from” the war-torn.
The former official said his goal is to be the “friend and adviser” to Trump’s new team that he “desired” to have when he joined the Trump White House in 2017.
During the transition, Kushner has weighed in on some appointments and nominations — one in particular is the plug for private equity executive Mark Rowen to be nominated for Treasury secretary, four sources familiar with the discussions said. (Trump He chose hedge fund executive Scott Besant instead..)
As her father launched his recent White House campaign, Ivanka Trump released a statement saying she was putting her family first and had no plans to return to politics. The former official said the couple’s children are aged between 8 and 13, and they want to give them a “normal life”.
“He will continue to run his business and build his family,” a source said of Kushner. “I think, if asked, he would help with things like the Middle East, but he had such a trying experience last time. [that] I don’t think he’s interested in that.”
“It’s not bad blood,” the man added. “He’s just going to do other things.”
The son wakes up.
As Ivanka Trump and Kushner have faded from the spotlight in recent years, Donald Trump Jr. has taken a more central role in his father’s political affairs. He and his partner, Kimberly Guilfoyle, have become staples of the GOP campaign trail and fundraising circuit, aggressively promoting candidates close to Trump or strongly aligned with his Make America Great Again movement. are
When Trump appeared to be leaning toward North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for No. 2 on the 2024 ticket, Trump Jr. and Eric Trump pushed him back to Venice. NBC News reported in July.. And after Karl Rove — a GOP strategist and Trump-world talking head — made Burgum’s case on Fox News, Trump Jr. printed a Breitbart News article that highlighted Rove’s praise and He immediately showed his father.
“The fact is that I have chosen. [Vance] Partly because I understand his demeanor and character, “Trump Jr. told reporters After Vance’s vice presidential debate against Minnesota Governor Tim Wallis.
Trump Jr. has also been involved in the transition, speaking out for or against certain candidates. His Negative feedback Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo may have helped reduce Pompeo’s chances of serving in the next Trump administration.
But Trump Jr. has several private ventures, including a podcast that he has used to promote his political views. That too recently Announced plans to join a venture capital firm. That is Invested in Trump ally Tucker Carlson’s new media venture. And Joined the Advisory Board of Extraordinary Machines.A drone company based in Florida.
Sources close to Trump Jr. said he has no plans for an official or unofficial position in the Trump White House. After Trump’s inauguration next month, his eldest son plans to focus on those business ventures and his family.
“You can expect Don to continue to vocally support his father and his agenda on the outside,” the source added. “But don’t expect him to be some kind of gatekeeper at the White House on January 20.”
Trump Jr. is also expected to remain close with Vance.
“Don Jr. is going to do private equity and continue to screw up life,” said one longtime Trump adviser. “I’m sure he will maintain a large social media presence and reach out to Vance in a big way and be seen as one of his closest people.”