President-elect Donald Trump is pressing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to appoint his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to fill outgoing Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s seat representing the Sunshine State, The Post has learned.
“Trump really wants Lara to do it,” one well-positioned source close to the discussions at Mar-a-Lago told The Post, saying the former president’s daughter-in-law has a high likelihood of being selected.
The incoming president, who is holding court at his West Palm Beach, Fla., resort during the transition, spoke with the Florida governor and already put in a good word for the wife of his second son Eric Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported.
But she’s made no secrets either about her desire to be tapped as Florida’s next senator.
Lara Trump, 42, stepped down this week from her role as Republican National Committee co-chair and declared she would “100%” consider taking Rubio’s place if he gets confirmed as Trump’s secretary of state.
“It is something I would seriously consider,” she told the Associated Press in an interview published Sunday.
“If I’m being completely transparent, I don’t know exactly what that would look like. And I certainly want to get all of the information possible if that is something that’s real for me. But yeah, I would 100% consider it.”
A DeSantis spokesman directed The Post to the governor’s statement about him receiving “strong interest from several possible candidates” for the Senate seat — and did not deny that the governor is considering Lara Trump for the spot.
One source close to the RNC, however, told The Post that Trump is “trying to force the appointment with her stepping down.”
“There are a lot of smoke-filled backroom discussions to the point where publicly Trumpworld is trying to force DeSantis’s hand,” the source said.
For his part, Rubio is expected to be easily confirmed to Trump’s cabinet after fostering strong bipartisan relationships while serving as vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“I have worked with Marco Rubio for more than a decade on the Intelligence Committee, particularly closely in the last couple of years in his role as Vice Chairman, and while we don’t always agree, he is smart, talented, and will be a strong voice for American interests around the globe,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) in a statement responding to the nomination.
“Unsurprisingly, the other team’s pick will have political differences than my own. That being said, my colleague @SenMarcoRubio is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) also posted on X in November.
