Amazon is reportedly toying with the idea of making Donald Trump Jr the host of a reboot ofThe Apprentice, the TV show that paved the way for his father’s political run.
There was speculation that Junior, the wildest, most Maga-fied Trump, was being primed to succeed Dad as president. He said last year “that [the] calling was there” in politics, and he has a solid fanbase in the gun-toting, big-mouth wing of the Republican party. Who better to carry the Donald Trump brand forward than the eldest son who bears his name? That’s the theory, but the President seems doubtful Junior, now a fully adult 48-year-old, has the chops to run a reality TV show, let alone the White House.
“He’s a good guy. He’d be probably good. He’s got a little charisma going. You need a little charisma for that sucker. So, we’ll see what happens,” Trump Sr told reporters in the Oval office.
The President is obsessed withbuilding a dynasty and believes in the power of “great genes”. But like Logan Roy, the patriarch in the television dramaSuccession, Trump loves playing his children off against each other. He thinks it instills a healthy killer instinct in his privileged offspring.
If he could hand-pick his political and showbiz heir, it would be Ivanka. According to the bookApprentice in Wonderland(2024), when Trump left the show to run for president, he wanted his daughter to take it over. “I didn’t press it,” he reportedly said. “But I felt Ivanka would have been by the far the best person you could hire.”
Ivanka, 44, is his only child to have served in the White House. She was Trump’s senior adviser in his first term, promoting women’s empowerment (how quaint that now seems in a world of masculine energy) and played the diplomat and quasi-First Lady at summits with foreign leaders.
By nature a charmer rather than a divider, and shaken by the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, Ivanka stayed out of the 2024 election. “I do not plan to be involved in politics,” she said when her father announced he was running again. Note her carefully calibrated use of the word “plan”.
Trump has done all he can to smooth her path with the experience and money needed to become America’s first woman president. Her husband Jared Kushner, also a former White House adviser,made a cool $2bn with Saudi investorson leaving office. He returned this year as a special “peace envoy” and leading Iran negotiator while continuing to do business in the Middle East.
I don’t doubt Jared would be delighted to serve as First Gentleman and consigliere to President Ivanka Trump, but they are both too smart to set their sights on the near future. With Trump at a low ebb – 55 per cent of Americans say they feel worse off, the worst number for 25 years, according to Gallup – 2028 may be a “change” election.
If Ivanka runs, it is likely to be when hostility to Trump has faded and nostalgia sets in. But her brothers have spotted a potential vacancy. Eric Trump, 42, the second son, told theFinancial Timeslast year, “I think I could do it. And, by the way, I think other members of our family could do it too.”
Source: Drudge Report
