Before Ivanka Trump, other presidential daughters also wielded influence at the White House
Ivanka Trump is the first first daughter in American history to score a West Wing office and hire a chief of staff. As her father’s “special adviser,” her portfolio encompasses both outreach to Europe and rolling her eyes at commander-in-chief dad jokes. In Berlin on Tuesday, she endured boos when she called the president a “champion” for families during a panel discussion with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and other female leaders
But Ivanka is far from the first adult daughter to leave a mark on White House history. The teen rebel Alice Roosevelt, for example, may have scorched some marks on the White House roof, given her habit of sneaking cigarettes up there in defiance of father Teddy Roosevelt’s no-women-smoking rule. “I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I can’t possibly do both,” a frustrated T.R. once famously declared.
But after maturing a bit, Alice’s had real impact as a glamorous fashion plate who was dispatched to represent her father on a diplomatic tour of five Asian countries in 1905, even as the president was helping to mediate peace between Japan and Russia.