Donald Trump Reportedly Pushed For Ivanka Trump As His Vice President

Donald Trump reportedly floated the concept of having his daughter, Ivanka Trump, as his running mate, according to his former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates. In a book Gates is releasing about his time with the first family he claimed that for weeks Trump pushed to have his eldest daughter, then 34, as his pick for vice president, The Washington Post reported.

While his top aides chatted in 2016 about who they thought a good pick would be, Trump reportedly interjected with his own idea in mind.

“I think it should be Ivanka. What about Ivanka as my VP?” Gates claimed he said. “She’s bright, she’s smart, she’s beautiful, and the people would love her!”

He kept pushing the concept, as the book recounted, trying to get his campaign staff to come around to the idea. He argued that the Republican base would vote for her.

“Trump was so taken with the concept of his eldest daughter as his vice president — and so cool to other options, including his eventual selection, then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence — that his team polled the idea twice, according to Gates,” the Post wrote.

He didn’t relent until Ivanka herself told her dad that she didn’t think it was a smart decision, the book said.

“Trump eventually came around and selected Pence, after the governor won him over by delivering a ‘vicious and extended monologue’ about Bill and Hillary Clinton at a get-to-know-you breakfast later that summer,” the Post wrote.

Previous reports have indicated that while she didn’t want to be his running mate, Ivanka supposedly wanted a huge role in the White House. As The Inquisitr previously detailed, she is said to have wanted to make the First Lady’s office one for the “First Family,” but was shot down.

Since writing about the encounter, Gates said that it isn’t clear whether or not he would have actually made Ivanka his choice for VP, but he opted to tell people about the exchange because he believes that kind of out-of-the-box thinking is what makes Trump good at what he does. It also highlighted Trump’s devotion to family, his former campaign manager said.

Gates’s tome, titled Wicked Games: An Insider’s Story on How Trump Won, Mueller Failed, and America Lost, is slated for release on October 13. Unlike some of the numerous releases in recent years, his isn’t an expose written after leaving the administration, but a positive look at his former boss and those who put him in office.

While Gates admits that Trump has been divisive, he said that he believes the president deserves to be re-elected in November. Gates pled guilty in 2018 to conspiracy against the United States and lying to federal investigators for activities he engaged in before working for the current administration.