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Washington (CNN) - Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump are undoubtedly the key women in the life of President Donald Trump.
Both are glamorous women. Both fashionable. Smart and knowledgeable about their public characters. Equally powerful and influential when it comes to the president of the United States.
But despite maintaining a warm relationship in the last two decades, the stepmother and stepdaughter have found the White House years more challenging, according to a source familiar with the dynamics that the friction between the two notices.
Lately, the two women are described as "cordial, but not close" by someone familiar with both. Months of overlapping objectives, trips, events and interactions with the president have created an unstable alliance, as reported in "Free, Melania: The unauthorized biography", available since Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for Melania Trump, Stephanie Grisham, told CNN that the two women "always shared a close relationship and still do today."
Melania Trump's first major solo trip was to the African continent, as was Ivanka Trump's first major solo trip. The first lady was the first to present highly produced mini videos of her events for public consumption, and now Ivanka Trump also makes her own short films, with voiceovers and music. While these points may seem trivial, the similarities have caused static.
On presidential trips, when Melania Trump goes, the profile of the first daughter decreases, and when the first lady is absent, Ivanka Trump takes a step forward.
He has created a strange dynamic that has left Ivanka and Melania Trump exchanging the front seat as the two women in Trump's orbit, a relationship that has created friction.
READ : "Free, Melania" offers new details about the life of a reserved first lady
It was during Trump's presidential campaign that family life changed politics, and the dynamics also changed.
Melania Trump, disinterested in the constant travels involved in the campaign, and hoping to maintain an appearance of normalcy for her young son, stayed mostly away, staying in New York. Along the way of the campaign, it was Ivanka Trump who entered her space. Ivanka Trump, an experienced public speaker who feels comfortable in the spotlight, was able to serve as a campaign substitute instead of Melania Trump.
The president's daughter maintained her role as one of the most prominent female faces of the family and administration, moving immediately to Washington, establishing her office as her father's principal advisor. Its portfolio also grew to include a greater defense of the problems related to women and the family, which have traditionally been the domain of the first ladies. Ivanka Trump supported women's economic development, tax credits for children and pressed for STEM programs for children and young adults.
"The most important investment we can make as a country is in the next generation of Americans, and we are doing it through our tax code," Ivanka Trump said in one of her social media videos, designed to capitalize on her photogenic popularity.
Ivanka Trump also learned to navigate the media, often selectively filtering her participation, or lack thereof, in headline creation policies.
The tension between the two was manifested by the credit of influencing the president to change his mind about one of his administration's most controversial policies: the separation of children at the border.
When images of children separated from their families flooded Twitter channels and news programs last year, a source said Melania Trump told the president that the zero tolerance policy had to end, and quickly. She organized a trip on short notice to fly to McAllen, Texas, and see for herself what was happening at an immigrant admission center.
"I'm headed to Texas," Melania told Donald Trump, according to a White House source.
Shortly after she left, but she did not leave until she was sure that her husband would sign an executive order that apparently would end the zero tolerance separation policy.
Ivanka Trump, at the same time, was also letting her know that she was trying to convince her father to disconnect zero tolerance. All this coincided with a few days of punishment for her on social networks. (As the photos and stories of the families that were being separated were rampant, Ivanka Trump had posted some personal photos of her and her young children on Twitter and Instagram, a measure that her friendliest critics called "deaf," and the toughest considered an example of his life "in a bubble").
Both women, separately and with their own characteristic styles: Melania Trump in silence and face to face with her husband, and Ivanka Trump through the media and their relations with legislators, pressed for action.
When the president signed the executive order, he gave credit to both women.
"Ivanka feels very strong about it," but also, on the next breath, "My wife feels very strong about it."
But Melania Trump boarded her government plane with the now infamous $ 39 jacket “I really don't care, right?”, A message lost in translation that was possibly a blow to Ivanka Trump, drifting in the lane of the first lady.
Melania Trump wearing something so cheap, much less from the fast fashion brand Zara (a label frequently used by Ivanka Trump during that period), was out of step with the regular dress preferences of the first lady, and the obvious negative messages they were not by experience or observation the style of Melania Trump. His spokesman, Grisham, after the offensive jacket took over the news cycle, officially said he had used it as a message for a nosy media.
In a way, Ivanka and Melania Trump are sharing, and will continue to do, the traditional roles that most female spouses or counterparts of male politicians have, but they share the most critical component: the president's ear. They are the only two members of the administration who have the freedom and power of total job security: one is the first daughter and the other the first lady.
Ivanka TrumpMelania Trump