Ivanka's influence not a 1st-family 1st

Several presidents have enlisted their daughters’ help — and been swayed

Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump, speaks while meeting with Trump (left) and women small business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on March 27, 2017. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Andrew Harrer.
Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump, speaks while meeting with Trump (left) and women small business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on March 27, 2017. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Andrew Harrer.

WASHINGTON -- 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," she can roll her eyes at the commander in chief's jokes while also taking up his cause in Europe.

Recently, she held her own during a panel discussion in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and other female leaders. She was booed when she called the president a "champion" for families.

But, although high-profile, Ivanka is far from the first first daughter to leave her mark at the White House.

Teen rebel Alice Roosevelt, for example, likely literally left a few marks on the White House, given her habit of sneaking cigarettes 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 Teddy Roosevelt once famously declared.

After maturing a bit, Alice made a 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.

"He harnessed her spunk, and she became a political asset," said Joshua Kendall, author of First Dads, a book on presidential parenting. "She was very stylish the way Ivanka is, although she wasn't selling her handbags."

Alice did sell cigarettes, though, long after she set up her Georgetown salon and became a widow when her husband, House Speaker Nicholas Longworth, died. She sold Lucky Strikes in print ads, quipped like American satirist Dorothy Parker and was a legendarily acerbic hostess in Washington society into her 90s.

But the time wasn't right for a woman to play more of a policy role in her father's administration. "She was extremely intelligent," said her biographer, University of Iowa history professor Stacey Cordery. "People always said if she had been a boy, she would have been president."

But Cordery's vote for most influential first daughter in the pre-Ivanka Trump age would likely go to Maureen Reagan, the Gipper's child with actress Jane Wyman.

Maureen -- Mermie, as her dad called her -- lived at the White House during much of her father's presidency. She was reportedly a voice of moderation on women's issues, whispering in her father's ear. She also was active in party politics, serving as co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, and ran unsuccessfully for public office twice in California before she died of cancer in 2001.

Like Alice Roosevelt, Maureen's half-sister Patti Davis thrived in the wild-child category of first daughters. She posed topless in the July 1994 issue of Playboy, five years after her father left office.

Franklin Roosevelt's daughter Anna played a less flamboyant but more central role in her father's White House. He turned to her as an all-around helper when his relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt became strained and distant.

Anna was working as a journalist on the West Coast when Franklin Roosevelt asked her to return to Washington during World War II. She ran his social calendar, took a hand in managing access to him and is credited by some for persuading him to take on Harry Truman as his final running mate.

It was Anna whom the president asked to accompany him to meet Britain's Winston Churchill and the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin at Yalta for post-World War II Europe reorganization talks.

"He seemed more comfortable with his daughter for things like this," Kendall said. "Yes, like Trump."

Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph took up first lady duties during two winters at the White House for her widower father, Thomas Jefferson. In 1806, she gave birth to the first baby born at the White House.

First daughter Margaret Truman made a name for herself as an enthusiastic, if not accomplished, singer. When Washington Post critic Paul Hume panned her 1950 performance at Constitution Hall, her father let him have it in a note written on White House stationery.

"Some day I hope to meet you," President Truman wrote. "When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!"

Margaret Wilson was also a singer, but a less notorious one. She took over first lady duties when Woodrow Wilson's first wife died. Wilson had three daughters, who reportedly lobbied him to support the right for women to vote, the 19th Amendment.

His youngest, Ellen Wilson, married Wilson's secretary of the treasury at the White House, making William McAdoo arguably the most powerful presidential son-in-law in history, at least so far.

SundayMonday on 04/30/2017

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