Ivanka Trump moving into West Wing office

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Though Ivanka Trump lacks a formal White House job, the president’s older daughter is moving into her own West Wing office, an administration spokesperson said – a move that increases her profile as an influential, though unofficial, adviser to her father.

Ivanka Trump will not be on the government payroll or officially bound by its ethics rules, but she said in a statement to Politico that she will “voluntarily” follow those restrictions, anyway. She also acknowledged the unusual nature of her emerging role.

“I will continue to offer my father my candid advice and counsel, as I have for my entire life,” Ivanka Trump in the statement. “While there is no modern precedent for an adult child of the president, I will voluntarily follow all of the ethics rules placed on government employees.”

President Donald Trump has named Ivanka, 35, the mastermind behind his child-care and maternity leave plans, the first proposals on such issues from a Republican president. Since the election, she has sat in meetings with world leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Politico reports she is also working to obtain a security clearance and will receive government communications.

The White House did not respond to further requests for comment.

Ivanka’s political ascent stands in contrast with some of her previously stated intentions. In January, she announced that she and her husband, Jared Kushner, would be moving to the nation’s capital – but she would be taking time off to focus on her family. “I plan to take time to settle our three young children into their new home and schools,” she wrote on Facebook at the time.

The law blocks the president from filling executive roles with relatives. President Trump has already tested this rule by hiring his son-in-law Kushner as a senior adviser.

Ivanka still owns her companies, but she has stepped down from her leadership positions and from her former executive role at the Trump Organization, her father’s company.

Still, ethics experts have raised concerns over an array of conflicts of interest between the Trumps and their sprawling businesses.

On Monday evening, NBC reported Ivanka has banned her eponymous brands from advertising anything with her image. But extracting the first daughter’s likeness from her products may prove difficult. During the campaign and even after the election, her public life has been intertwined with her products.

Ivanka Trump wore a pink dress from her label to the Republican National Convention in July and then tweeted where to buy it. She sported a $10,800 gold and diamond bracelet in a post-election “60 Minutes” interview in November. The next morning, her company advertised the bangle in an email to fashion reporters, thought it later apologized for the incident. Last month, after the retailer Nordstrom cut ties with Ivanka Trump clothing, White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway drew criticism after telling television viewers during a news interview to buy Ivanka’s goods, a statement that appears to have caused a spike in sales.

(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Danielle Paquette

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