Donald Trump may have confirmed Ivanka will play First Lady-style role

'Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage [my businesses]'

Ivanka Trump (Getty)

Donald Trump’s flurry of tweets on Monday night was seen as significant because it shows he won’t clear up the issue of his conflicts of interest before the Electoral College meets on 19 December.

But the President-elect’s late-night activity also gave possibly the clearest indication yet that his daughter Ivanka - not even mentioned in the tweets themselves - is about to assume a very senior role in his administration.

Mr Trump said in his tweets that: “Even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my busineses before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the presidency.

“Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage them. No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office.”

That’s significant, because it has previously been the case that Mr Trump’s three oldest children - Don, Eric and Ivanka, have been presented as running the Trump Organisation more or less on an equal footing.

The fact that Ivanka Trump is not mentioned appears to confirm that she is taking a step back from the business, as the New York Times reported late last week, initially to focus on “being an advocate on issues in which she has a personal interest, like child care”.

The Times reports that Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner is in line for “an as-yet undetermined role advising his father-in-law”, and that the pair are likely exploring a move to Washington DC as a result.

There is, in turn, speculation that Mr Trump’s wife Melania will stay in New York with the pair’s young son Barron. It leaves the coast clear for Ivanka to assume a First Lady-like role alongside her father.

Throughout the Trump campaign, Ivanka played an important role as the publicly likeable, reasonable-sounding and women-advocating foil to her father. She gave a key interview shortly after the “grab ‘em by the p***y” scandal erupted, defending Mr Trump’s track record.

Mr Kushner and Ms Trump are unable to receive official roles in Mr Trump’s Cabinet, due to the US’s clear-cut nepotism laws. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be influential figures in Washington for the next four - or eight, as the President-elect also hinted in his tweets - years.