Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President Donald Trump, has joined her father’s administration. Officially. On Wednesday she announced she was taking on the role of ‘Assistant to the President’, a position which puts her on equal footing with two of the most pivotal in the administration: the national security adviser and the chief of staff.
The move followed national uproar over news Ivanka was intending to serve as an ‘informal adviser’ to her father, complete with an office in the West Wing. She was already in the process of gaining security clearance, which would allow her access to classified information, and also government communications devices. As her critics pointed out, she would need to be bound by the federal employee provisions for transparency and ethics – legally, not just hypothetically (in a statement, she had promised to ‘voluntarily’ follow ‘all of the ethics rules placed on government employees’). Furthermore, she was coming very close to violating federal anti-nepotism laws, which bans relatives of the President from government positions.
There are many reasons to be concerned by Ivanka’s appointment. She has no experience in politics. Indeed, neither has her husband, Jared Kushner, who has recently been appointed ‘Senior Adviser’ to the President. Neither were elected. The whole thing reeks of paranoia on Donald Trump’s side: a man apparently unwilling to trust those outside the Trump familial fold.
We also don’t know much about Ivanka’s politics. Who knew if she agreed with her father’s controversial ‘Muslim Ban’ or whether she was a voice of dissent? If the latter, she wasn’t able to prevent it. She was also of no consequence when the newly inaugurated President reinstated the Mexico City policy, which barred international non-governmental organisations from receiving funding from the US government if they performed, or even promoted, abortion. For someone claiming to offer her father ‘candid advice and counsel’, and whose website tag is ‘inspiring and empowering women’, where was she when her father took pen to paper to disregard the rights of women to choose?
Yes, there are many reasons to be concerned by Ivanka’s shiny new appointment. However, on the premise that, for the time being, there’s nothing that we can do about it, and going on the fact she’s not done anything wrong – yet – perhaps we can examine what positives might be found in this unprecedented hire.
Like, what does this mean for women around the world? Namely that the person acting as the President’s ‘eyes and ears’ (as Ivanka’s attorney claims) is one of them. Considering her father once said (in interview with ABC News) that ‘putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing’, this shows considerable progress: Ivanka is not only a wife but a mother too. She might have remained largely silent over the resigning of the Mexico City policy, but it was her childcare plan for women to receive six weeks paid leave to give birth, which Donald Trump announced during his campaign. It might do nothing to benefit new fathers, or parents who adopt, and yes, it implies Ivanka is of the thinking that when it comes to newborns, that’s all women’s work... However, six weeks of paid leave for new mums is better than no paid leave at all. And it’s more than Donald Trump has ever personally put forward on the matter.
Ivanka likes to pitch herself as a feminist. #WomenWhoWork is her hashtag, and conveniently, the name of a book she has written, set to be released in May. She has been called a ‘soft-focus’ feminist by many, but the fact she is keen to be seen as a feminist at all, can only be a good thing for her father’s administration. Let’s face it, the White House needs all the feminists it can get… when faced with incidents like last week’s Republican healthcare meeting with Vice-President Mike Pence; a discussion that addressed such issues as whether the new bill should order health insurance companies to cover such ‘essential benefits’ as maternity care, in a room made up of over 25 men and just the one woman. (Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway, in case you’re wondering.)
What is also encouraging about the announcement of Ivanka’s official role is that it means the advice she offers will now be subject to more stringent checks. As Joe Devanny, a research fellow at King’s College, London, told Newsweek, the informal advisory channels between Ivanka and her father are already cemented. ‘If that relationship is a fixed point in the way that the Trump administration will run, it's better to make it as formal as possible with a flow of information and a paper trail.’
In essence, the nature of their relationship will be far more transparent this way, than if she reserved her ‘counsel’ for the quiet confines of the family dinner table on fried chicken Fridays.
The final point to make here is that, as we’re well aware, Donald Trump is not a man to back down or conduct any kind of U-turn in the face of criticism. But Ivanka’s very appointment is evidence of, if not a U-turn, at the very least, ‘backing down’. In the statement announcing her assistant role, Ivanka said: ‘I have heard the concerns some have with my advising the President in my personal capacity while voluntarily complying with all ethics rules, and I will instead serve as an unpaid employee in the White House Office.’
Her status as an ‘unpaid employee’ gets her round the anti-nepotism laws (it’s not a violation of the law if she’s unpaid) – so arguably, a sneaky move – however, the fact she claims she has listened to the ‘concerns’ of the nation by formalising her role, shows that in this instance at least, the Trumps were not willing to completely bulldoze their way through the pre-established protocol. As President Barack Obama’s former White House ethics counsellor Normal Eisen puts it: ‘The White House came to their senses…. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out to be an isolated moment of sanity.’.
It’s safe to say we all have our fingers crossed on that one.
READ MORE: Ivanka Trump Will Serve As Special Assistant To Donald Trump