As Ivanka Trump’ visibility fades, Laura Trump’s comes into clearer focus

Lara Trump standing next to the president elect. Screen shot: aninews/YouTube

According to American news media, president elect Donald Trump has a new “right-hand” woman. She is his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the singing sensation and the wife of his second son Eric. At Mr Trump’s victory announcement, she “stole the limelight”, as it was described, standing there smiling approvingly at everything her father-in-law said. She, too, was having a moment. Even Melania Trump, soon to be FLOTUS again, who was standing to her husband’s left, in what could be a Dior skirt-suit, seemed excluded. In contrast, it was another married-to-a-Trump, 12 years younger than the now-author, that is catching the attention of the world, shocked by an unexpected American election result. The daughter-in-law was basking in a particularly Trumpian nepotistic glow.

Lara Trump has been campaigning hard for Mr Comeback. And she has risen fast, even faster than one of Elon Musk’s Space X rockets. She was a former television producer at Fox News. After she left the network in 2022, she went full steam into helping her father-in-law win back the White House, sometimes campaigning alongside the famed conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer. In February this year, she was endorsed by Mr Trump for the role as the co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC). She was then too much of a novice to assume leadership of a political operation of such importance to the GOP. But, a month later, the RNC unanimously elected her. USA Today described her appointment as Mr Trump’s “full-on takeover” of the RNC. For her acceptance speech, Lara Trump said, “As my father-in-law says, ‘bigly’… We’re going to win!” She was on to something then, and outside MAGA Land, few saw it.

She went full steam into helping her father-in-law win back the White House, sometimes campaigning alongside the famed conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer

It is admirable, and uncommon, that a woman loves her father-in-law this much, but Lara Trump is in a unique position to be a part of the next four years of American politics, especially now that Ivanka Trump, former advisor to her dad in the White House, has opted out any involvement with her father’s campaign. Ms Trump knew whose side she needed to dance on. While she was involved with the father-in-law’s presidential race in 2016, it was during the latest campaign when she made her voice heard. Even musically. Ms Trump sings, as it turned out, and she has recorded two tracks to inspire the MAGA masses: Tom Petty’s 1989 track I Won’t Back Down and the original Hero, both would unlikely have gone further than the audition round of America’s Got Talent.

Lara Trump has often been described as “glamorous”. And there she stood on stage that early hour of the morning, when Donald Trump declared victory, personifying that. This was glamour as the MAGA masses love: brash, exaggerated, in-your-face, fierce, glittery. This is glamour for mass consumption, for a taste culture dictated by social media, for the aesthetic limitations of her supporters cheering her on, by way of Donald Trump. Subtlety has no place in her dress lexicon, just as it has no place in Mr Trump’s rhetoric. As her visibility rose, so did her choice of clothes, even accessories, such as wearing the small bust of Donald Trump above her cleavage. She took him to her bosom. He was very happy. She became the epitome of the MAGA blonde.

Lara Trump and Donald Trump at a Women for Trump get-together. Photo: erinmelmore/Instagram

So what can a family member not a real daughter (and not one that the president-to-be has the hots for) do in the White House? Ivanka Trump is unlikely interested in another desk there. She could be too busy wanting to get back into New York society that has ostracised her. Lara Trump is said to be articulate and is considered a good communicator (not—it has to be said, again—a good singer), more so than her hair-alike sister-in-law. She could be the next Hope Hicks, but not Sarah Huckabee Sanders since Ms Trump is glamorous and better-accessorised. Heaven forbid that she’ll be anointed as Senior Councelor to follow the footsteps of “alternative truth” Kellyann Conway. Whatever she shall be, can she top that brilliant spin on plain lies?

At the victory announcement, she wore a sheer, patterned (lace?), black top with extremely pronounced shoulders and details on the cuff (were they feathers?), paired with also-black slacks, flared at the calves. It was glamorous, as if she was going dancing with Eric Trump at a club. Undeniably, she stood out. More than Melania Trump, more than Ivanka Trump in a blue velvet suit that looked suspiciously like an old Gucci. Lara Trump did not need conservative threads to celebrate her father-in-law’s startling win. She did not even need a suit to help him secure the White House for another four years. All she needed was to look like she was part of the cast of Real Housewives of Miami. Or every bit a glamorous Trump, artfully seducing MAGA World.