Ivanka Trump has reportedly shelved her political ambitions and is “focusing on her family” an unnamed source told Fox News, thus shuttering months of speculation that she was considering running for the Senate or for governor in Florida. Now it seems, as Queerty [1] notes, she is “apparently content eating bonbons in her $40,000/month Miami condo as she has illegal workers build her $32 million dream home on Indian Creek Island.”
Well, she is, after all, a spoiled “daddy’s girl” so I suppose this comes with the territory.
But there’s a good chance there’s more to this than one might expect because sister-in-law Lara, wife of Eric Trump, has also screeched her political ambitions to a halt. She disappointed virtually no one with the news that she won’t be running for North Carolina’s Senate in 2022 after making numerous trips to the state that subsequently led to lots of speculation.
“I am saying no, for now, not no forever,” she told the crowd at the North Carolina GOP state convention Saturday.
And Lara, like Ivanka, was also considered a shoo-in for the Republican party’s nomination, is saying she wants to spend more time with her family, adding that “at the right time” she would “absolutely love” to be a congresswoman.
But journalist and former NPR host Jeremy Hobson has done a bit of digging regarding this situation and he believes there’s more to the situation. If Ivanka or Lara were on fire, there’s a good chance no one will be waiting in line to throw water on them because according to internal polling their chances of actually winning were lower than the gum on the bottom of my shoe.
“The fact that both Ivanka Trump and Lara Trump have decided NOT to run for office right now should tell us something about internal polling on the strength of the Trump brand,” Hobson posted on Twitter.
The fact that both Ivanka Trump and Lara Trump have decided NOT to run for office right now should tell us something about internal polling on the strength of the Trump brand.
— Jeremy Hobson (@jeremyhobson) June 6, 2021 [2]
An April NBC News poll found [3] that 44 percent of Republicans supported Ivanka’s dad, Donald Trump. That number was down from 50 percent just a few months earlier. Plus, last week dear old dad shelved his official blog after less than a month due to what the Washington Post described as “measly readership.”
Ouch.
Then, of course, there are multiple ongoing investigations into the Trump Organization, and this may be a pretty big reason why Trump’s daughter and daughter-in-law are avoiding the spotlight.
As you might expect, Twitter has some thoughts:
The fact that both Ivanka Trump and Lara Trump have
decided NOT to run for office right now
might show they can read a subpoena ?
— joebarton1238 (@joebarton1238) June 7, 2021 [4]
What is their cheating game not up to standard
— JC (@jc_resists) June 7, 2021 [5]
Well when they go to prison…who is home with the kiddies?
— Ladyjeananderson (@Ladyjeananders1) June 7, 2021 [6]
Or the fact they both know they are about to be busy fighting legal battles.
— Janine Kube (@KubeJ9) June 7, 2021 [7]
I think it tells us the RNC isn’t comfortable to have women run who are married to possible future felons. 😲
— Joan Blair (@joanblair) June 7, 2021 [8]
Others thought this smacked of typical Republican/Trump supporter misogyny:
Or it suggests something about how trump fans feel about women running for office…
— The Last G Millennial Jedi 💛 (@Yaktuary) June 7, 2021 [9]
I suppose this could be the case but either way, let’s be glad these two are out of the running. For the time being, anyway.