Donald Trump's daughter take outsized roles in dad's army

WASHINGTON: The Republican Party appears to have become a Trump family enterprise going by the enormous influence the New York mogul’s spouse and offsprings exercised over proceedings in Cleveland, even as many party veterans were sidelined and others kept away.
Aside from Trump’s wife Melania, whose gauzy speech was panned for the two paras lifted from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address, three other Trump children (Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump) from his first marriage to Ivana, and their sibling Tiffany Trump (from his second marriage to the actress Marla Maples), spoke at the convention.
Only his fifth child Barron (from his current wife Melania) was missing from the speaker’s line up, although he was onstage at the finale with the large Trump brood, including several grandchildren.
Although Presidential nominee spouses and children play a key role in the process, typically highlighting the family virtues of the candidate, the Trump family clearly has an outsized role in his political journey. More than just speechifying, they – particularly his sons – have been his "A" team, vetting dad’s schedule, speeches and his picks, including his choice of Indiana governor Mike Pence as a running mate.
However, on Thursday night, it was his daughter Ivanka who ignited the convention with an accomplished address that briefly threatened to overshadow even her dad’s acceptance speech.
A businesswoman who is also a mother of three, Ivanka introduced her father with such aplomb, throwing in a heavy policy initiative direct at women in the process, that some Republican diehards wondered if the 34-year old executive would make a better candidate than her 70-year old father.
Calling him a "people’s champion," Ivanka said her father was "color blind and gender neutral" in remarks aimed at glossing over Trump’s reputation as a racist and misogynist based on his many offensive remarks.
Even more striking than her willowy looks was the heavy ball she heaved out in an effort to draw more women into her dad’s fold in a race where Hillary Clinton is thought to have the female vote.
"In my father's company there are more female than male executives. Women are paid equally for the work that we do. And when a woman becomes a mother she is supported not shut out," Ivanka told the cheering crowd, pledging that Trump "will fight for equal pay for equal work" and she will fight alongside of him.
"As a mother myself of three young children I know how hard it is to work while raising a family and I also know I am far more fortunate than most. American families need relief," she said, adding, "Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties, they should be the norm."
Her address in some ways mitigated her stepmother’s plagiarism misstep, but it also overshadowed the efforts of her male siblings.
Hillary Clinton will also be supported by her family, including a presidential spouse who is famed for his silver-tongued oratory, and a daughter (Chelsea Clinton) who worked briefly as a journalist for NBC, when she takes the stage in Philadelphia at the Democratic Convention next week.