Ivanka - de facto First Lady in the event of a Trump presidency?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was looking at a photo on Drudge a few minutes ago showing Donald Trump making his victory speech after winning the New Hampshire primary. Off to one side was Melania, she of squinty eye, thick accent, dour expression and deliberate non-participant in her husband’s campaign.

On the other side was Ivanka, charming, intelligent, beautiful, radiant, heavily pregnant and with a million-watt smile, all this after having made 7 campaign stops in New Hampshire in one day to promote her father’s White House bid.

And it occurred to me that should he win the White House, Donald might be doing everyone a favor by having Ivanka fill much of the traditional role of First Lady. She would be great hosting White House dinners, meeting with foreign dignitaries and heads of state, and would be a great ambassador for both Trump and the U.S. on the world stage. And she seems to be respected by almost everyone, Republican, Democrat, young and old, male and female.

Frankly, I’m not all that big on Melania. I get the feeling she’d rather just stay in her golden palace in the sky in New York with her young son while Trump does his thing in Washington.

So does anyone see anything wrong with this scenario, whether it would be a bad idea or just not doable for some reason?

P.S. - Here’s an article on the Trump family victory appearance. To her credit, Melania does look pleased and is smiling brightly at her husband in one of the photographs, so who knows, maybe I’m wrong. At any rate, I’d still like to hear what everyone here, primarily as Democrats, think of the idea.

2

Sounds great. I’m sure Donald would love it if she fulfilled some of the more traditional First Lady duties as well.

3

Definitely unseemly and immoral. Should your proposed union result in progeny, possibly illegal as well.

4

Might have known. :rolleyes:

5

Huh?

Nothing wrong or illegal about it. But, no big deal either.

6

Might have known what? I think it’s a great idea, and I bet Donald dreams about it well into the night.

7

Maybe not in DC, but in many states it is illegal.:frowning:

8

Illegal for your daughter to host events at your house? I’m a little skeptical about that. The First Lady is not a cabinet position. Yeah, there might be a concern if she were to get involved officially with policy, or to receive compensation or a job offer from here dad related to the executive branch. But, to be involved in social events, probably not.

9

I think it depends on the social events in questions. There’s a longstanding taboo (and often legal sanctions) against certain kinds of father-daughter social events.

10

kayaker and iiandiii are joking that Donald would be banging his daughter. Funny, huh?

ETA: I should probably have put this is IMHO rather than the mini-Pit that is Elections. 208 views so far and the cracks by those two are the best anyone can come up with apparently.

11

OK let us get serious for a bit and get over the persistent joke – yes, the role of First Lady/Social Hostess of the White House has been filled in by other relatives in the past in absence of a presidential spouse.

But I do not recall it happening when there was a spouse able to fill the role, at least not officially. There may have been times when due to health considerations or pursuit of other interests or temperament issues, the “Social Hostess” role gets filled de-facto by someone else who can do so better while the spouse continues being referred to as the First Lady.

It’s not really a government post, it’s a role within the Presidential household and any official activity is just in function of presidential delegation.

Now we return you to your ongoing snark.

12

From here.

Rather creepy.

13

Yeah, he has a habit of saying crude things. No who knows him or sees how his family’s turned out would take that wisecrack as anything more than it is - a silly wisecrack intended as a compliment to her attractiveness. For some reason I thought an intelligent conversation could be had about the subject here. But like I subsequently said, I should have known better.

14

Perhaps if he wasn’t a racist sexist thinly veiled fascist we’d be willing to talk about it intelligently . Trump makes no effort to be intelligent in his campaign speeches. Why should we be intelligent here ? And yeah, he totally wants to bang his daughter and it’s creepy as fuck.

15

Melania is doing what most presidential candidates want their spouses to do, stay out of the limelight. She’s ideal First Lady material.

16

Your words:

17

If he were truly a sexist, racist, facist anywhere but in the minds of his political opponents you might have a point. But he isn’t in reality, so you don’t.

18

Please. :rolleyes:

I said he might have her fill many of the duties of a First Lady, not all of them. I also outlined quite specifically the areas where I thought she’d excell.

You can try to shift the blame for your childish retort onto me but it won’t hold water.

19

I agree. In reality he’s pretending to be one so they’ll vote for him.

20

I think part of the reason for the snark is that the prospect of Trump winning the nomination and the general election is such a silly hypothetical – to wit, ain’t gonna happen. But hey, I’m willing to suspend disbelief long enough to offer an opinion.

There are two questions here – would Melania be interested in pursuing the traditional duties of a First Lady, and would the American people be inclined to accept her in that role.

Melania herself has answered the first one. In an interview when she was asked the question, she seemed to regard herself as a future Jackie Kennedy (her own comparison, not mine). IOW, when it comes to all the official functions and honors of being First Lady, sounds like you couldn’t pry her gold-digging trophy-wife paws off it with a crowbar.

The second question is how well the American people would accept a Slovenian national who just recently became a naturalized citizen (she only acquired citizenship in 2006, a year after marrying the Donald) as being a creditable representative and the supposed highest icon of American culture and values. I’m talking about those who still regard Obama as a foreign-born Muslim – like most of Trump’s supporters.