Donald Trump's Kiwi deputy chief of staff Chris Lidell open's up on working for the president. Video / TVNZ
With her father apparently on the way out, Ivanka Trump appears to be angling for a future run at politics – but for ordinary Republican voters, Donald Trump's golden child may be a tough pill to swallow.
The 39-year-old, the President's second child with his first wife, Ivana, is one of his four adult children – alongside Donald Jr, Eric and Tiffany – now being floated as possible candidates for 2024.
Trump, who has so far refused to concede to Joe Biden and vowed to fight the "rigged" election in court, has previously said his eldest daughter would be "very, very hard to beat" if she ever wanted to run for President.
But according to The Times, insiders suggest there is limited appetite for an Ivanka 2024 bid.
"Whether she was or not, she was always supposed to be the 'moderating influence' (on her father), which doesn't make you very popular with the average Republican voter," The Atlantic's political writer McKay Coppins told the paper.
"There are not a lot of people calling out for Ivanka to run."
Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President Donald Trump, at the White House. Photo / Getty Images
Critics inside the White House nicknamed Ivanka as "HABI", or "home of all bad ideas", while her husband Jared Kushner was dubbed "secretary of everything" for his wide-ranging meddling, investigative journalist Vicky Ward wrote in a book about the couple last year.
Ward's book, Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, painted the couple as ruthlessly ambitious and loathed by many who were forced to work with them.
The President's more right-wing advisers grated at Kushner's focus on progressive causes such as criminal justice reform, which many believed had hurt him politically.
In July, Axios reported that Trump regretted listening to some of his son-in-law's advice and would follow his instincts more.
"No more of Jared's woke ****," one adviser told the site, interpreting his comments.
The Trump base's animosity towards "Javanka" was epitomised by the couple's fiery relationship with Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist who left the White House after a falling out with his boss in 2017.
In Ward's book, Bannon recalled clashing with the couple as he attempted to turn Trump's nationalistic campaign rhetoric into government policy, describing Kushner as a "****ing devil".
He also claimed to have told Ivanka to "go **** yourself … you are nothing" in front of her father during an argument over who was the bigger leaker to the media, with Ivanka reportedly calling him a "****ing liar".
The day after Biden declared victory, CNN reported that Kushner had approached his father-in-law about conceding – a story many expected had been leaked by the couple as an image-saving move.
Andrea Bernstein, author of American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power, told The Times that Ivanka's social media photos – with military personnel, blue-collar workers, women and ethnic minorities – were a sign she was contemplating a 2024 run.
"You see someone who's very careful to surround herself with the kind of imagery which could be the basis for a political campaign some time in the future," she said.
"She's in every way like her father except that she's incredibly disciplined in her messaging. I can certainly envisage a scenario where she runs as the Trump without the rough edges."
Among the Trump children, it's the brash Don Jr who most closely resembles his father.
"There's no question that Donald Jr wants to have a future in the Republican Party and sees himself as the heir apparent," Coppins told The Times.
"He's the one who's inherited a lot of Trump's MAGA base, who speaks Trump's language."
The 42-year-old divorced father-of-five is the most outspoken and controversial of his siblings, attracting the most trouble. Last year, he told Fox News his father sometimes had to get him to reel himself in when he was "getting a little hot on social".
"You know, I realised, it took me 41 years to realise that I was probably a lot more like him than we ever thought," he told Fox & Friends during a promotional tour for his book Triggered.
"And you know, backed in a corner, we fight. But every once in a while, I get that call. 'This is the White House operator. The President would like to speak to you.' 'Don, getting a little hot.'"
In the lead-up to the election, Don Jr posted a photo on social media of himself standing next to a huge "Don Jr 2024" sign in Nevada. "This will make the lib heads explode," he wrote. "To whomever made that thanks for the compliment… but let's get through 2020 with a big win first!!!!"
Don Jr's girlfriend, 51-year-old former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, is also a longshot 2024 contender on betting sites.
Eric Trump, meanwhile, the often overshadowed younger brother who was left in charge of running the Trump Organisation, has been vocally echoing his father's unproven claims of election fraud.
The 36-year-old is widely expected to focus on the family business rather in the fallout from the election – but his wife, 38-year-old Lara Trump, has been tipped as a potential dark horse for a run at politics, after her regular TV appearances during the campaign defending her father-in-law.
"Lara is very personable, very articulate," Republican fundraiser Jack Oliver told The Times. "She was an extraordinary star on Fox News almost on a nightly basis on behalf of the President's agenda."
That just leaves 27-year-old Tiffany Trump – Trump's only child with his second wife Marla Maples – who recently graduated from law school and hinted during her speech at the Republican National Convention that she was struggling to find a job.
"We believe in equality of opportunity. We believe in freedom of thought and expression," she said.
"We believe in school choice, because a child's zip code in America should not determine their future. We believe in freedom of religion for all faiths, and we believe in the American spirit. Because in America your life is yours to chart.
"So if you're hearing these things, and thinking to yourself, that is the kind of country that I want to live in. Well, whether you realise it or not, you are a Trump supporter," she added.
