The Melania and Ivanka Trump Rebrand Is Nigh

This just in! Ivanka and Melania Trump should not be associated with any of that legal mumbo jumbo going on with the former president. These ladies? They don’t even know what a “perp walk” is. They literally haven’t spoken to anyone except their children in weeks. Politics? Never heard of her. Just ask any one of their anonymous “friends” who have been giving national tabloids minor variations on the same story for the better part of a week now. 

Okay, I’m exaggerating. Slightly. Because ever since the news of former president Donald J. Trump’s looming indictment broke, there has been an unusual number of articles putting as much distance as possible between the former president and the only two people he’s ever been known to listen to: his wife and daughter. 

The first reports that Trump could soon be indicted for hush money payments to Stormy Daniels came on Friday, March 17. Then the stories of Trump’s pre-arrest celebrations came rolling in (show tunes and fist pumping were reportedly involved). And by Thursday, March 23, Melania and Ivanka had made it clear in People and Page Six that they were not celebrating along with The Donald. 

Claim People’s anonymous sources: “Barron has always been a first priority in [Melania's] life”; and “Melania is leading her own life, and still feels happy being at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by people who love her and who never talk about reality, or bad things about her husband”; and “Donald does what he wants, and [Ivanka] can't help him now”; and “[Ivanka] basically wants a new life to compensate for what she lost when she spent four years in her father's Washington.” 

Now, sure, it’s possible that Ivanka and Melania have surrounded themselves with a bunch of loud-mouthed associates who keep gossip magazine editors on speed dial and just happen to all be on message at the same time. Of course, there is also the other explanation.

Perhaps, unlike Mike Pence, Ivanka and Melania have realized that close association with the former president is no longer good for their personal brands or their standing with the Justice Department. And so they dispatched a small army of publicists cleverly disguised as “insiders” and “sources” to spread the word far and wide that though they’re still Trumps, they’re not like Trump-Trumps. At least, not anymore. (It’s not like this is unheard-of, FWIW. Publicists have been feeding tabloids favorable scoops under the guise of “inside sources” since forever.) 

Similar stories have been published in Page Six, which claims that Melania has been hunkered down at Mar-a-Lago and refusing social engagements in order to better protect her son, 17-year-old Barron. The outlet has also reported that Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, “want nothing to do with this,” with a source saying, “I don’t think you will see them defending him, it will be ‘no comment.’” Ivanka has also taken Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me” approach in court, claiming, per The Independent, that she had no knowledge of the fraudulent financial statements filed by the Trump Organization, of which she was once a top executive.

Now that former president Trump could be arrested any day, his wife and daughter do seem especially keen to deny their reputations as Donald whisperers or powers behind the gilded throne. This, to me, is kind of funny, because remember when Ivanka was thought to be the only person capable of reasoning with her father? According to the hearings, for instance, it seems like everyone in and around the White House on January 6 believed Ivanka to be the one person who might be able to get her dad to call off his rioters. Melania may have tried to stay quiet in public, but reporting throughout the Trump administration indicated that the former first lady was a known power player behind the scenes. 

So, I’m supposed to believe Ivanka is, what, a bland lifestyle influencer now? Are we really saying Melania is holed up in a dusty wing of Mar-a-Lago with her teenage son leashed to her arm? I just don’t buy it.

Kathleen Walsh is a contributing writer at Glamour. You can follow her on Twitter @kath_walsh.