In Florida, Ivanka Trump's senatorial ambitions
Plagued in New York where she grew up, Ivanka Trump moved to the "Sunshine State", near Miami, from where she plans to launch her candidacy for the Senate for 2022.
With no other political experience than to have accompanied and supported her father unconditionally for four years, never elected but endowed with an inordinate ambition, Ivanka Trump has the gift of shaking the tenors of American politics by the simple mention of her first name. "Ivanka? I, um ... well ... I like Ivanka a lot," stammered Marco Rubio on January 24 when a Fox News presenter asked him about Donald Trump's daughter.
This Cuban-born Florida senator is not used to babbling. Candidate for the Republican primaries of 2016 - he had then viciously criticized Donald Trump, deeming that he represented a source of "embarrassment" for his camp -, he has established himself over the years as a figure of the party, at only 49 years. Today, more than anyone, Rubio fears a comeback of the second of three children the outgoing president had with his first wife, Ivana Trump.
By leaving the White House to settle in his rococo mansion in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Donald Trump has indeed dragged in his wake his favorite 39-year-old daughter, ex-model and businesswoman, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, 40, former real estate developer turned White House adviser. The couple have just acquired a $ 32 million villa on Indian Creek Island, an enclave near Miami dubbed "the billionaires' bunker."
Focus on the Senate in 2022
It did not take more for All-Washington to speculate on Ivanka's new project: to become a Florida senator in 2022. A scenario taken very seriously by the best political analysts. Her career as a businesswoman in ready-to-wear and jewelry seems to be over: since her father's election as president, the department stores Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus have ceased to distribute her products. And former business partners have complained about its lack of ethics.
After having oscillated for a long time between the Democrats and the Grand Old Party (GOP), Ivanka today declares herself a "Trumpist-Republican". During the 2020 presidential election, Donald Jr and Eric's sister paved the way for her possible upcoming campaign, leading dozens of meetings and charity events in Florida. In 2022, if her candidacy materializes, she will face Marco Rubio in the primaries.
"Rubio will not be an easy opponent, he is firmly established in Florida and his Cuban origins are a huge advantage on the Republican side," stresses political consultant and conservative author Ryan Girdusky. However, these days in the United States, and especially in Florida, the surname Trump opens up prospects. " But Ivanka wouldn't have a boulevard in front of her either. Former governor of Florida (2011-2018) and new senator of the same state, Rick Scott, for example, has just declared that, if necessary, he would support, as usual, the incumbent candidate, that is to say Rubio.
Ivanka would benefit from the support of her father, who has repeatedly expressed the idea that she could one day become the first woman to enter the White House. In a book published at the end of 2020, Rick Gates, a former adviser to Donald Trump, says that in 2016, already, the future president had considered choosing his daughter rather than Mike Pence to form his "ticket". "What if I take Ivanka as a candidate for vice president?" Trump had suggested. For her part, journalist Emily Jane Fox, author of Born Trump: Inside America's First Family (2018, HarperCollins), said: "Ivanka is convinced that she can become head of state. She often quotes the Kennedys and the Bushes. , two families that have marked American politics over several generations. "
A dynastic dream
Indeed, the Trump family has long been steeped in this dynastic idea. “Even before the birth of his first son, Donald Jr., Trump boasted that he wanted at least five children, in order to increase the likelihood that one of them looked exactly like him,” continues Emily Jane Fox. have inherited at least one of his character traits: Ivanka is in the media, Don Junior is unpredictable, and Eric is a businessman ", to stick only to the children of his first marriage.
Like Ivanka, 43-year-old Donald Jr has a political streak. Strong in mouth, follower of harangues and conspiracy theories, he is popular with young activists and among rural people. His name had been put forward for a candidacy - which did not materialize - for the post of senator from Wyoming in 2020; he is now circulating to head the National Rifle Association (NRA), the powerful gun lobby. Another Trump, Eric's wife Lara, could run for senator in her native North Carolina in 2022, with a real chance of winning.
In very democratic New York City, where they have spent most of their lives, the Trumps have, on the other hand, become outcasts. Ivanka's mere appearance in a boutique on chic Park Avenue in early November sparked a torrent of indignant reactions online and in the New York press. "Jared and Ivanka, get the hell out of it, New York doesn't want you!" thus pinged the Daily Beast site. Art dealers even proclaim their refusal to sell them works, while New York justice pursues the Trumps in several fraud cases and that the city hall has canceled all its contracts with the Trump Organization, chaired by Donald . To rebuild a political virginity, Florida seems better suited.
