The Washington Post reported on Monday that according to a new book by Trump political consultant turned key Mueller witness Rick Gates, President Trump considered adding Ivanka Trump, his consensus favorite child, as his running mate before settling on the much more conventional choice of Mike Pence. The book recalls Trump proclaiming, “I think it should be Ivanka. What about Ivanka as my VP?” to a group of aides, then bringing up the idea repeatedly in subsequent weeks.
Trump’s team went so far as to poll the idea multiple times (it’s unclear what the polling found), though Gates told the Post that he wasn’t sure if Trump would have actually gone through with it.
Gates, who despite his damaging entanglements with the president remains a fan, sees Trump’s willingness to put a blood relative and political novice one heartbeat away from the most powerful job in the world not as dangerous or frightening, but as representative of the family values Trump supposedly stands for.
He writes that the then-candidate was eventually dissuaded by Ivanka herself, who told her father, probably quite sensibly, that a Trump–Trump ticket was not a great idea. The rest is Trump–Pence odd-couple history.
