It only makes sense that such an unprecedented president-elect should have an unprecedented First Daughter. And to Donald Trump, Ivanka has long been first among equals.

Of his 5 children, she is peerless. During a family interview with Barbara Walters last year, Eric, Donald Jr. and Tiffany Trump all said Ivanka, 35, is their father’s favorite. When asked, years ago, how he ranked Ivanka and his other daughter Tiffany, Trump said there was no contest.

While Ivanka would not be the first woman to sub for a first lady - most notably, Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter Alice did - none would have the influence Ivanka likely will. Trump’s team has floated the idea of Ivanka as inhabitant of the First Lady’s office in the East Wing, and Ivanka has begun personally lobbying Congress on child-care legislation.

Even if Trump’s wife, Melania, hadn’t announced that she’d be staying behind in New York City to see their 10-year-old son, Barron, through the end of the school year, the campaign itself proved that Ivanka’s opinions and advice, her branding and image, were prized most highly by Donald.

It was she, not Melania, who introduced the candidate at the Republican National Convention. In her speech, Ivanka sanded down the image of her father as a grotesquerie who rates women on a scale of 1 to 10, who has traded in wife after wife for younger, hotter models, who once boasted that Ivanka herself was so hot that, if not for biology, he’d be dating her.

For those terrified of a Trump presidency, there is some solace in Ivanka, the urban sophisticate who will surely keep her father on the rails. For Trump supporters, she’s an aspirational avatar, proof that they’re not the knuckle-dragging hicks the media claims.

Ivanka can be whatever the electorate wants: She’s registered as neither a Republican nor Democrat, identifying as an independent. She was raised Presbyterian but converted to Orthodox Judaism for her husband. Her mother, Ivana, is a Czech immigrant. Ivanka was raised in immense privilege yet never had the public missteps of peer Paris Hilton. She’s a businesswoman who devotes much of her social media to her kids. She seems very much a feminist, even though her dad has said sexist, misogynistic things.

But above all else, she envisions herself as part of the team:

Asked how she felt on election night, Ivanka’s answer - more than any other utterance thus far - shows exactly where she sees herself: shoulder-to-shoulder with President-elect Trump. “We’re very grateful for the opportunity,” Ivanka said. “And we take that opportunity very seriously.”