As President-elect Donald Trump assembles his senior staff and Cabinet for his second administration, there are notable vacancies: their children.
Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, were omnipresent during his first term — entrenched in their West Wing offices and often credited (or blamed) for his decisions.
The 2024 campaign has seen a changing of the guard with Ivanka Trump and Kushner to step aside In Florida, and Trump’s sons are taking on a more meaningful role in the political operation.
Donald Trump Jr. with the help of his younger brother Eric — Aggressively lobbied his father to pick Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate and asserted himself during the transition. And Trump’s youngest son, Barron, helped craft a podcast-heavy campaign strategy helped attract young male voters.
None of the sons will join their father in the White House. Trump Jr. focuses on outside interests, including his own podcast. Eric Trump remains in charge of the family’s Trump Organization business holdings. Barron Trump is an 18-year-old college student.
Kushner, meanwhile, is making suggestions behind the scenes and taking calls for 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 take any formal role in the White House.
According to the couple, the time-consuming work in Washington last time “took a heavy toll” on their family life, said a former senior Trump White House official who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to share observations about domestic and family dynamics. The person added that because Trump is surrounded by more people he trusts in the new term, there is less urgency for his daughter and son-in-law to join him.
This tally of the roles Trump’s family members will play in his second administration is based on conversations with 10 people familiar with the dynamic.
For now, the only family members on board joining the second Trump administration are more distant in-laws. Trump last weekend Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, has announced plans to run for office. For the ambassador in France and To designate Massad Boulos – the 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 Leavitt wrote in an email. “They have endured unprecedented hardships, witch hunts and persecution and have stood with the President-elect in honor because they believe in his mission to make America great again.” Whether formally or informally, the President’s family will always play an important role in his Administration.”
Trump himself cited the scrutiny family members faced during and after his first administration as the reason for his reluctance to appoint them to key positions a second time.
“My family lived through hell” He said in an interview with Fox News in June 2023.
Those close to Trump and his family say the absence of family members in high office reflects a number of other factors. The broader Republican Party, which eight years ago was full of skeptics who might have turned on Trump, is right on board with him. The family now has a deeper trust in the management partners and political advisers that surround Trump.
“Unlike the first time, the entire Republican Party is with them,” said a 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.
“Last time the family was so involved because there was a lack of trust in the campaign people and the politicians in charge,” he said. “The biggest thing that’s changed, I think, is that the family feels confident and comfortable in leadership.”
The person added that Trump’s children and his wife, Melania, are particularly confident in new White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who is co-chairing the campaign.
“Susie ran the best 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 had four chiefs of staff. Susie is built to be the best of them all.
Nevertheless, Trump’s children will remain close and influential in his orbit.
Donald Trump Jr., who has maintained a busy campaign schedule this year for down-ballot candidates backed by his father and his father, has developed a close relationship with Vance, a sure bet to run as Trump’s one-term successor. four years.
“We get four more years of Trump and eight more years of JD Vance!” Trump Jr. said at an October campaign event for Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio.
Eric Trump will continue as executive vice president of the Trump Organization and oversee “all areas of hotel, golf, commercial, residential, retail and other related holdings,” Kimberly Benz, the company’s executive director of operations and communications, wrote in an email. .
His wife, Lara Trump, is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee. And if Trumpworld has his way, he’ll step into the soon-to-be-vacated seat held by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whom Trump intends to nominate for secretary of state.
Family members and key Trump allies like billionaire Elon Musk have publicly pushed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to nominate him as Rubio’s successor — which could make him the family member with the most practical political influence early in Trump’s second term.
“I think he understands our base; he understands the movement,” Trump Jr. said in an interview with Fox News last month. “You see what’s happening in Florida. I mean, this is a red hot situation. In 2016, we turned back the countries where we lost 30 and 40 points, and they are now positive for Trump.”
DeSantis Advisors This was reported by NBC News last month Lara said Trump was being considered, but other DeSantis allies were on the short list. The governor, whose relations with Trump have worsened after protesting against Trump for the presidential candidacy of the PFLP this year, may run for the presidency again in 2028. Bypassing Lara Trump for the seat could further alienate her from the Trump base.
“I don’t think there’s any question that DeSantis knows what the position is,” said a Trump ally familiar with the family’s thinking. “There are two different ways he can go with this and that will speak volumes.”
Changing of the guard
It would be hard to overstate the influence that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner carried during the first Trump administration.
The pair were first among equals, surviving the palace intrigue and infighting that created constant turnover among Trump’s top aides. While four chiefs of staff came and went, Kushner and Ivanka Trump stayed until the end. Kushner worked in an office just steps from the Oval Office, while Ivanka Trump worked in an office on the third floor in the West Wing.
Kushner had a broad policy portfolio during Trump’s first administration, from the Middle East to the administration’s efforts to combat the pandemic. He helped his father-in-law broker the Abraham Accords, a breakthrough in Middle East relations in which Israel normalized relations with various Arab countries.
A former senior White House official said the president-elect occasionally calls Kushner to get his thoughts on some potential hires. Kushner also spent time talking to Steven Witkoff, whom Trump has tapped to be his special envoy for the Middle East, helping him get “up to speed” in the war-torn part of the world.
The former official said his goal is to become a “friend and adviser” to Trump’s new team, which he “desires” when he enters the Trump White House in 2017.
During the transition, Kushner mulled certain appointments and nominations — particularly the nomination of private equity executive Marc Rowan to be treasury secretary, four sources familiar with the conversations said. (Trump instead chose hedge fund executive Scott Bessent.)
As her father began his latest campaign for the White House, Ivanka Trump said she put her family first and had no plans to return to politics. The former official said the couple’s children are between the ages of 8 and 13 and they want to give them a “normal life”.
“He’s going to run his business and continue to build his family,” the source said of Kushner. “I think he will help with things like the Middle East if asked, but he had such a test last time [that] I don’t think he’s interested.”
“It’s not bad blood,” the person added. “He’ll just do other things.”
The son rises
As Ivanka Trump and Kushner have stepped out of the spotlight in recent years, Donald Trump Jr. has taken a more central role in his father’s political affairs. He and partner Kimberly Guilfoyle have become staples on the GOP campaign and fundraising circuit, aggressively promoting candidates close to Trump or aligning closely with his Make America Great Again movement.
When Trump leaned toward North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for the No. 2 spot on the 2024 ticket, Trump Jr. and Eric Trump steered him back toward Vance. This was reported by NBC News in July. After Karl Rove — the GOP strategist and swearing head in the Trump world — made the case for Burgum on Fox News, Trump Jr. printed a Breitbart News article highlighting Rove’s praise and immediately showed it to his father.
“The reality is that I chose [Vance] Partly because I understood his behavior and, you know, his character,” Trump Jr. said. told reporters After Vance’s vice presidential debate against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Trump Jr. also participated in the transition process by speaking for or against certain candidates. His negative feedback Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could help reduce Pompeo’s chances of serving in the next Trump administration.
But Trump Jr. has several personal ventures that occupy his time, including a podcast he uses to advance his political views. And recently announced plans to join a venture capital firm that there is Trump ally invested in Tucker Carlson’s new media venture and Joined the Weird Machines advisory boardA drone company based in Florida.
A source 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 pursuits and his family.
“Don can be expected to support his father and his agenda with an outside voice,” the source said. “But don’t expect him to be some kind of gatekeeper to the White House on January 20.”
Trump Jr. is also expected to remain close to Vance.
“Don Jr. is going to engage in private equity and continue to destroy lives,” said a longtime Trump adviser. “I’m sure she’ll maintain a large social media presence, and will also be very fond of Vance and continue to be seen as one of his closest people.”