U.S. President Donald Trump embraces his family during the 58th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., 2017. Photo / Getty
U.S. President Donald Trump embraces his family during the 58th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., 2017. Photo / Getty
She's gone from the girl who would hang out in her dad's boardroom to a key cog in the President's inner circle. Now, she has the world in her sights.
If her father ever leaves the White House, Ivanka Trump is tipped to be one of the main contenders to take on Joe Biden in 2024 — capping a meteoric rise from a runway model and socialite to prospective leader of the free world.
It's a journey that sources close to the first family have seen coming as the 39-year-old — dubbed Donald Trump's favourite child — followed in her father's footsteps throughout her glittering career.
She has always been extremely close with her father. When she was just a young girl he would brag to elite business executives about how smart she was.
After school she would hang around at board meetings, picking up his secrets from a young age.
But her journey in her father's footsteps began to really take shape when she began studying at Georgetown and the University of Pennsylvania (her father's alma mater), where she graduated in 2004 with a degree in economics.
Her business aspirations were clear, but she also began to make waves in the fashion world even earlier in her life — modelling for magazines when she was just a teenager.
It looked at that point as if she could follow in the footsteps of her fashion designer mother — Trump's first wife, Ivana, who was born in Czechoslovakia.
Standing at 1.8m tall, Ivanka made a striking impression on the runway where she walked for major fashion labels like Versace.
Ivanka is being touted by some as a contender in the next US Presidential election. Photo / Getty
However, it soon became clear that she wouldn't be walking the runways for long.
In 2005, she became one half a power couple when she began dating Jared Kushner from a fellow real-estate mogul family, and she began to take an increasing interest in her father's business empire.
The same girl who had been hanging around her father's board room all those years ago became an official employee a year after she had earned her stripes at college.
Not content to be a cog in her father's business, she started to do her own thing in 2007 when she opened her own Fine Jewelry store on Madison Avenue in New York City. She partnered with a diamond wholesaler for the company and licensed her name.
After apparent success in retail, she created her own fashion and lifestyle brand, The Ivanka Trump Collection.
By 2013, The New York Times reported the Ivanka Trump brand sold about US$75 million (NZ$110m) worth of shoes, handbags, and other products at wholesale, making her around US$4m to $5m richer.
In that period it looked as if she'd mastered her father's famous "deal-making" skills as she made waves within his empire.
She was the lead negotiator on the Trump National Doral Miami, a $1 billion property that she managed to scoop up for $150m.
Her success in business led her take another leaf out her father's book, literally. Trump had revealed his negotiating secrets in his non-fiction bestseller, The Art of the Deal, way back in 1987.
By 2005, Ivanka published The Trump Card, which divulged her own business experiences and tips. It also became a New York Times bestseller.
But it wasn't just deal-making skills that she shared with her father. She picked up his ego and his relentless work ethic from a young age.
She told Harper's Bazaar in 2007 that she had "a big ego" as a result of her father always testing her.
U.S. President Donald Trump embraces his family during the 58th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., 2017. Photo / Getty
"Even though he knew I always wanted to go into real estate, when I got an offer to work at an incredible fashion magazine, he would be like, 'Oh, that's so cool. Are you sure you don't want to go and do that?' For a while, I was getting a little discouraged. 'Do you not think I have what it takes?!'" she told the magazine.
She told the American ABC in 2015, her father had taught his children "since birth" that they "were lucky to have been afforded" such a luxurious lifestyle — but that it came with responsibility.
"He was the first to tell us how privileged we are. And with that privilege how much responsibility we had to really sort of earn," she said.
Other reports document her work ethic, stating she juggled her two worlds in fashion and her dad's business by waking up early every morning, as early as 5.30am so she could tackle her fashion work before jumping on the phone at 9am to make property deals.
And, as if she hadn't had enough of working with her dad, she became a boardroom judge on his reality television show, The Apprentice.
It looked as if Ivanka had cracked the worlds of business, fashion and showbiz, but everything changed for her in 2016 when her father was elected as the US President.
Despite her father being seen as a divisive figure by many, sales in her fashion line actually spiked in the 2016 — up by 21 per cent on the previous year.
However, she was considered part of her father's inner circle even before she was officially appointed and questions began to be asked about conflicts of interest with her fashion line.
While Melania remained in New York City — to stay with stay her son Barron while he completed the school year — Ivanka moved Washington DC with her family.
It was a move seen by many as a powerplay that turned her into a de facto First Lady.
She left the fashion world behind in 2018, when she shut down the clothing brand because of frustrations over conflicts of interest and increased scrutiny.
The move meant she had more time to focus on her role as a public policy adviser within the Trump administration.
In that role, she focused on education and economic empowerment of women and their families as well as job creation and economic growth through workforce development, skills training and entrepreneurship. She has pushed for a child tax credit and paid family leave.
She has become one of the President's most trusted advisers over the years, and she has reportedly managed to change his mind on some of his more controversial issues.
She reportedly urged her dad to end his family-separation immigration policy, in which all adults detained at the US border on immigration offences were criminally prosecuted, requiring them to be separated from any children accompanying them.
"That was a low point … I feel very strongly about that," she told Axios. "I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children."
However, it is clear she is aligned with her father's views on may other subjects.
As he digs his heels in and refuses to concede the results of this month's presidential election, she is standing firmly by his side and backing his claims of election rigging.
"Every legally cast vote should be counted. Every illegally cast vote should not. This should not be controversial," she wrote in recent days on her Twitter page.
"This is not a partisan statement – free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy."
It is unclear how long this situation is going to continue, but in all likelihood the President will have to concede soon and, if that happens, attention will turn to Ivanka's strategy once the family exits the White House in January.
A return to reality television, or a return to the fashion world could be options for her when that happens. But she could also be making much bigger plans.
A Facebook page entitled "Ivanka for President 2024" has emerged, and many Republican supporters reportedly want to see a member of the Trump family take on Biden again in 2024, with Ivanka one the favourites if their father rules himself out of the race.
It would be a huge step from the former model turned businesswoman extraordinaire, but this who back her believe she has the inside knowledge and experience to make it work.
And, since she has followed in her dad's footsteps this long, perhaps would seem like the next logical step in her story.
