First ladies aren’t always presidential spouses. In fact, two early uses of the title refer to the beautiful, popular Harriet Lane, niece of James Buchanan, the only lifelong bachelor president. She was an able hostess who, not long before the Civil War, arranged for Northern and Southern guests to be seated apart at a White House function in order to keep the peace.
Harper’s Weekly called her “Our Lady of the White House,” and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper captioned Lane’s picture thusly: “The subject of our illustration . . . may be justly termed the first lady in the land.”
So as we learn that Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s oldest daughter, arranged a meeting between the president-elect and former vice president Al Gore; that she and husband Jared Kushner are reportedly house-hunting in Washington; and that Ivanka is rumored to be looking at White House office space, it’s pretty fair to say she isn’t breaking completely new ground.
There’s no job description, so like other first ladies, Ivanka can define her position – and it looks like the gig is hers – in a unique way: to advocate for nonpartisan causes as Laura Bush did with children’s literacy and Michelle Obama did with nutrition, or she can do what Hillary Clinton did and set up in the White House’s West Wing and serve as a de facto policy adviser.
But unlike her predecessors who weren’t the wife of the president, Ivanka appears poised to be an adviser, advocate and hostess all at once. Which could revolutionize the role – and make her the most powerful first lady ever.
“Ivanka and Jared and Don Jr. are more influential than any Cabinet member,” a friend of the Trumps told me recently, referring to the first daughter, her husband and her older brother.
And given Ivanka’s enthusiasm on the campaign trail and her understanding of the ways of official Washington – in contrast to her stepmother’s apparent indifference – it’s not only conceivable that she’ll be the incoming administration’s titular first lady, she’ll redefine the position by expanding it in ways that will make it almost unrecognizable.
