Donald Trump planned to appoint daughter Ivanka as president of the World Bank

Former US president Donald Trump planned to appoint his daughter to a very surprising role – before a senior official “blocked her ascent”.

When former US president Donald Trump named his daughter Ivanka as a senior White House adviser, it raised more than a few eyebrows.

While the mum-of-three had enjoyed a diverse career – from modelling in her younger years to serving as executive vice president of the family’s Trump Organisation, acting as a boardroom judge on her father’s TV show The Apprentice and launching her own fashion label – Ms Trump had little to no political experience.

But now, it has been revealed that Mr Trump planned to appoint her to an even more bizarre role which she was not qualified for.

According to news site The Intercept, when Jim Yong Kim announced in January 2019 he was stepping down as president of the World Bank, it “was seen as a setback, as it handed an opportunity to choose a new leader to President Donald Trump, creating worries that the America First champion would pick somebody ill-suited for the global role”.

Since it was formed in 1944, the US has always appointed World Bank presidents, while Europe selects the International Monetary Fund head.

And it turns out those fears about who Mr Trump might select were warranted, with sources claiming he wanted the First Daughter in the role.

Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump night before election day. Picture: Ivanka Trump/Twitter

Mr Trump even told The Atlantic in 2019that he had “thought of Ivanka for the World Bank”.

“She would’ve been great at that because she’s very good with numbers,” he said in the interview.

“She’s got a great calmness … I’ve seen her under tremendous stress and pressure.

“She reacts very well – that’s usually a genetic thing, but it’s one of those things, nevertheless. She’s got a tremendous presence when she walks into the room.”

Ivanka went on to tell the media that she had declined the potential opportunity as she was “happy with the work” she was doing in the White House.

However, behind the scenes, it apparently came very close to actually happening.

“But two sources, not authorised to speak publicly, tell The Intercept the talk of Ivanka at the helm went far beyond the realm of Beltway chatter: Trump very much wanted Ivanka as World Bank president, and it was [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin who actually blocked her ascent to the leadership role,” the report reads.

A “well-placed source” also told the publication Ivanka’s appointment to the position “came incredibly close to happening”.

In her role as an adviser to the President, Ivanka worked with the World Bank on the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, which raised money for female entrepreneurs in the developing world.

But Scott Morris, director of the US development policy program at the Centre for Global Development, told The Intercept it gave her nowhere near enough experience to take on the top job.

“It’s hard to imagine that she would have been viewed as a credible leader.,” he told the publication.

“It would be the worst kind of exercise of US power.”

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump (pictured with two of their children) both served as senior White House advisers during the Trump administration. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

Since her father’s exit from the White House, rumours have continued to swirl that Ivanka – who has since relocated to Miami with her husband Jared Kushner and their three children – was nursing political ambitions of her own.

Earlier this year, there was fevered speculation the 39-year-old was considering challenging Florida’s Republican Senator Marco Rubio in 2022, or even running for president as early as 2024.

And in February, a report by Axios gave weight to that theory, revealing Ivanka had been concocting a “re-emergence plan” centred on criminal justice reform – a cause already championed by a string of high-profile figures including Kim Kardashian, Jay Z and Kevin Hart.

Meanwhile, in early 2021, ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington announced the high-profile couple – dubbed “Javanka” – had disclosed earning between $US23,791,645 ($A30 million) and $US120,676,949 ($A155 million) in combined outside income in their final financial disclosure reports.

The cash was made over the course of 2020 and up to January 20, 2021, when Donald Trump left office.