Later, she said, “I’m not the campaign mastermind that people like to portray and speculate.”

Also: “I’m not an adviser; I’m a daughter.”

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Got that, media? Where did you even get this crazy, speculative idea that Ivanka Trump is one of her dad's most-trusted consultants?

Maybe it was from Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who in July took himself out of the running to be Donald Trump’s vice-presidential nominee and promptly told MSNBC that the billionaire’s “best running mate, by the way, would be Ivanka.” Or maybe it was from Eric Trump, who said the next day that he agreed.

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Then again, it could have been from Donald Trump, who in August floated the possibility of appointing Ivanka to a Cabinet position. A year earlier, when Sean Hannity asked who Trump “listen[s] to the most, as it relates to politics,” the eventual Republican nominee named Ivanka.

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The idea could even have come from Ivanka Trump herself, who told the New York Times in April that she and her father remain in constant contact when traveling separately, speaking by phone as often as five times per day. It was Ivanka who helped develop and promote Donald Trump’s child-care plan. It was Ivanka who accompanied her father on the “Dr. Oz Show,” when he released his medical records. And it was Ivanka who, throughout the campaign, stepped into the humanizer-in-chief role typically filled by a spouse.

Ivanka Trump might not be her dad's de facto campaign manager (though she was reportedly one of the figures behind the firing of one), but she clearly is an adviser, a confidant and, yes, a surrogate.

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