Trump reportedly considered choosing Ivanka as his running mate in 2016

Brendan Morrow
·2 min read

President Trump was reportedly eyeing a potential Trump-Trump ticket in 2016.

According to an upcoming book by former Trump deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, Trump suggested naming his daughter Ivanka Trump as his running mate in 2016, The Washington Post and Bloomberg report.

"I think it should be Ivanka," Trump reportedly said. "What about Ivanka as my VP?"

Gates writes that "we all knew Trump well enough to keep our mouths shut and not laugh" at the idea, per Bloomberg, as Trump went on to say that his daughter is "bright, she's smart, she's beautiful, and the people would love her!"

In fact, according to Bloomberg, the book describes how Trump brought up this idea numerous times over the following weeks, and Gates said it became clear to advisers "just how serious he was about putting his politically inexperienced daughter just a heartbeat from the presidency." The campaign reportedly conducted polling on the potential pick, and Gates writes that by July 2016, the idea "started to catch some momentum." Ultimately, though, Ivanka Trump herself shot it down, according to Gates.

"She went to her father and said, 'No, Dad. It's not a good idea,'" Gates writes, per Bloomberg. "And he capitulated."

Other alternative running mates who reportedly were considered include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, but Gates writes that Trump "had already told us, privately, that he thought 'there was something wrong and off' with Newt." While Ivanka would ultimately become an adviser to her father in the White House, the campaign in the end went with then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as the 2016 running mate, despite the fact that, according to Gates, Trump had previously referred to Pence as a "loser."

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