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Michelle Cottle
By Michelle Cottle
Ms. Cottle is a domestic correspondent for Opinion and a host of “Matter of Opinion.”
Well, that was fast! Donald Trump is not yet the Republican nominee for president, but already we’re witnessing a resurgence of the in-your-face nepotism that brought us last decade’s cringe-worthy reality show: Javanka in the West Wing.
Like so much about Trump 2.0, this round of packing institutions with puppets is looking even dingier and more shameless than the last, starting with the former president endorsing Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, to be co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
“Lara is an extremely talented communicator and is dedicated to all that MAGA stands for,” gushed Mr. Trump of his son Eric’s wife. “She has told me she wants to accept this challenge and would be GREAT!”
This does indeed sound like a sweet gig for Ms. Trump, who has spent the past few years in search of an appropriate outlet for her talents. In the months after Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss, she toyed with running for the U.S. Senate in her native state, North Carolina, but that never quite gelled. In 2021, she signed on as a contributor to Fox News, only to have the network cut her loose the next year when her father-in-law officially began his latest White House run. (The network has a policy of not employing anyone so closely linked to a political candidate.) She’s piddled around hosting a conservative podcast. She’s busied herself with pet-themed charities. This past fall, she even made a play for divadom, releasing a cover of Tom Petty’s late ’80s hit “I Won’t Back Down.” The less said about that the better.
But with her paterfamilias moving to make the Republican Party a wholly controlled fief of MAGA, it only makes sense to have an actual member of the family in the top leadership of the party organization.
One might have assumed Mr. Trump would have been sated by giving the heave-ho to his once-loyal lackey, Ronna McDaniel, and endorsing Michael Whatley, the head of the North Carolina state party, to be the Republican National Committee’s main chairman. Mr. Whatley has proved his MAGA chops with his energetic embrace of Mr. Trump’s election-fraud baloney. Assuming Mr. Whatley is elected to the post, the odds of him exhibiting any independent judgment in his new role are next to nil. Still, when it comes to the installation of blindly loyal minions, Mr. Trump is a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy. And, after all, family is family.
Now, I want to avoid climbing too far up on my high horse. Mr. Trump’s moving to put his people in the upper echelons of the R.N.C. is, to varying degrees, pretty common for the presidential nominees, or even presumptive nominees, of both parties. Hillary Clinton did a bit of it at the Democratic National Committee in 2016, earlier and more aggressively in the nominating process than many people found seemly. Mr. Trump isn’t shattering a norm so much as taking things to a disquieting extreme.
The truly Trumpian wrinkle here is that the MAGA king doesn’t care about any qualification other than blind loyalty. That whole “best people” nonsense from his first presidential go-round has fallen by the wayside for now. Ms. Trump could be as dumb as a brick (though I have no reason to think so) and he’d still consider her the perfect co-head for his R.N.C. — arguably all the more perfect, since people lacking their own vision tend to be easier to control.
From what we have heard about Mr. Trump’s plans for a second term — an administration defined by total subservience — there seems to be a rich opportunity for him to put other family members to use should he win in November. This could be especially timely considering the legal mess in which the family company has been embroiled of late. And the family foundation has already been dissolved, following its own legal kerfuffle. What could be more obvious than for Mr. Trump to put the extended clan to work in the White House?
Just imagine the most extreme version as Don Jr. barrels around the West Wing, knocking heads as chief of staff, while his gal pal Kimberly Guilfoyle works her magic as communications director. And lest anyone accuse Trump Sr. of playing favorites, Tiffany, just a few years out of Georgetown Law, could be brought in as White House counsel. Or, heck, why not attorney general!
What to do with middle child Eric is always a puzzle. With his background at the family firm he could maybe work as the secretary of commerce or housing. Then again, with his having appeared as a “boardroom judge” on nearly two dozen episodes of “The Apprentice,” the Supreme Court could be an even more tantalizing option.
Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, has been notably absent from the campaign thus far, and never seemed jazzed about her time as first lady. But even if she only goes along for the ride, she can be useful to her hubby. Witness how he used his Valentine’s message to her this week as a fund-raising tool. “Dear Melania, I LOVE YOU! Even after every single INDICTMENT, ARREST, and WITCH HUNT, you never left my side,” it began. So moving. Presumably, she’s braced for an encore performance, though it’s hard to see how another four years of this insanity would #BeBest for her.
And Javanka? With some West Wing experience already under the fashionable belt, especially on the diplomatic front, Ivanka is surely ready for bigger and better things. Secretary of state, perhaps?
As for Jared, he recently insisted that he has no plans to follow his father-in-law back to the White House, preferring to focus instead on the investment firm he founded in 2021. Fair enough. The political hot seat is not for everyone, and Jared may figure he has already made all the foreign connections he needs to thrive. Certainly, the $2 billion investment his firm reportedly received from a sovereign wealth fund controlled by his buddy Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, was a tasty treat. That said, plans change. Fortunes shift. And, when pressed by Axios, Mr. Kushner allowed that “nothing in my life has gone according to the plans I’ve set.” So if things got wild and woolly in a second Trump administration, who’s to say what role he might consider.
But I’m getting ahead of events. The election is still months away. And the really plum jobs won’t open up unless Mr. Trump prevails. Only then could any full-employment plan for his kin and other loyalists achieve full potential.
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Michelle Cottle is a domestic correspondent in Opinion and a host of “Matter of Opinion.” She has covered Washington and politics since the Clinton administration.
@mcottle
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