What role will Ivanka play in Donald Trump's upcoming administration?
Washington DC - Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President-elect Donald Trump, abruptly left politics in 2021, but does she have any intention on returning now that her father will be president again?
Back in November 2022, Trump held an event to announce that he was again running for re-election, and while most of his immediate family was there – including his often-absent wife, Melania – his daughter, Ivanka, was noticeably missing.
A day later, Ivanka shared a statement revealing that she did not "plan to be involved in politics" to focus on her family but would support her father "outside the political arena."
Now that Trump is preparing his return to the White House, it appears Ivanka is sticking to her guns.
Sources recently told CNN that she's continuing to focus on her private life in Miami, Florida, where she lives with her husband, Jared Kushner, and their children.
Still, Ivanka remains close with her father and is "likely to continue to informally advise him on a range of issues behind-the-scenes," but that advice is "never going to be something that people are going to see publicly."
Why did Ivanka Trump leave politics?
In the sparse public appearances and interviews she's done since 2022, Ivanka has been very cryptic about her reasons for abandoning politics.
In July 2022, her mother and Trump's first wife, Ivana, unexpectedly passed away.
In an Instagram post paying tribute to her mother, Ivanka admitted that losing a parent "takes a good amount of time to emerge from how it dislocates you."
Critics have also speculated that Ivanka may have struggled under the pressure of her father's many legal issues and scandals, as she was regularly expected to defend him and has even been forced to testify against him in court.
Ivanka's husband, Jared, is also reportedly avoiding a return to politics, even after Trump recently tapped his father, Charles Kushner, to be US Ambassador to France.
Cover photo: ADAM GRAY / AFP