The media is making much ado about the possible conflict of interest with Ivanka Trump’s new expanded role inside her father’s White House, which includes an office and security clearance. What that official role is exactly hasn’t been disclosed, but based on Ivanka’s presence in meetings with foreign dignitaries—everyone from Justin Trudeau to Shinzo Abe to Angela Merkel—it appears she plans to operate in the capacity of a special advisor to dad.
This, of course, raised several ethics alarms. Ivanka turned over operations of her own personal corporate brand to her brother and sister-in-law prior to announcement. But like her father, she still holds enough influence over corporate operations that, while not necessarily in violation of the law, there’s plenty of room to profit from the business.
Per the New York Times:
To address those concerns, Ms. Trump handed over day-to-day control of her company to her top executive, Abigail Klem, and transferred its assets to a new trust overseen by relatives of her husband.
But details of the arrangement, which have not been disclosed, indicate how much power Ms. Trump continues to hold over the brand that bears her name.
How Trump and family divest, if they divest, permanently or temporarily, may walk a sketchy line constitutionally. But it doesn’t really matter to a middle-class voter being squeezed financially to make ends meet between mortgage payments and their healthcare premium. There’s just simply not much reason for an average voter to care about how Trump handles his complicated family business while he is President.
What voters should care about, however, is Ivanka’s policy stances, both from the past and in the present, as she can now wield almost unparalleled influence over President dad on issues near and dear to her own heart. They should also care about how that those goals might compete with and even sideline other legislation that’s high on the priority list for the GOP congress.
Ivanka has donated thousands of dollars to prominent Democrat candidates including Harry Reid, Andrew Cuomo, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Kirsten Gillibrand, Gavin Newsom, Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker, Eliot Spitzer, Hillary Clinton’s Senate and 2008 Presidential campaigns, and just recently to new Democrat star Senator Kamala Harris. In the interest of fairness, she did donate to John McCain and Romney/Ryan 2012, but according to sources, contributions to Republicans make up less than 10% of her overall donations. Ivanka was not even able to vote for her father in the GOP primary, as she did not switch her party affiliation by the deadline.
Ivanka has been using her influence on the Hill to lobby for her Universal Child Care plan, a plan that borrows from Hillary Clinton’s same policy. While Trump’s childcare plan does offer an allowance to let parents deduct costs from their income taxes, there would be a cap. Parents who make more than $250,000 would not be eligible for the tax break. Trump’s plan was estimated to come in at around $2.5 billion, but the question is: How much will a GOP congress that is looking to lower taxes across the board for employers and by repealing Obamacare feel about taking on another entitlement?. Do they dare cross President Trump by denying his daughter and lead advisor her golden egg?
The GOP has already been forced to accommodate Trump on free trade and possibly evicting several residents off their land on the southern border through eminent domain so he can have his big beautiful wall. Just how many tenets of old-fashioned conservative policy is the party willing to concede not only to Trump but also to his daughter—at the expense of the agendas of Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell?
One such clash of ideology may come with funding and defunding Planned Parenthood. While Trump has said he believes Planned Parenthood “does some good things,” he has also said he is for federally defunding the abortion provider at the behest of congress. Ivanka herself has no real history of publicly backing Planned Parenthood as an organization, and she simply says that she fights for the rights and empowerment of women.
But again, several-thousand dollars in donations to politicians who support Planned Parenthood speak volumes. While campaigning for her father, she was point-blank asked about her abortion stance. “I don’t talk about my politics, I don’t feel like it’s my role. … I’m the daughter… I don’t think my politics are relevant to the discussion.”
The problem with an artful but vague answer is that she is no longer just the candidate’s daughter, and her politics, as the President’s closest and most influential advisor, have just become very, very relevant.
