Trump’s Daughter Forges New Role

A month before Donald J. Trump was elected president, he and his aides watched his daughter’s coolly composed surface crack open.

Inside Trump Tower in Manhattan, the candidate was preparing for a debate when an aide rushed in with news that The Washington Post was about to publish an article saying that Mr. Trump had bragged about grabbing women’s private parts. As Ivanka Trump joined the others waiting to see a video of the episode, her father insisted that the description of his comments did not sound like him. When the recording showed he was wrong, Mr. Trump grudgingly agreed to say he was sorry if anyone was offended.

Ivanka Trump made an emphatic case for a full- throated apology, according to several people who were present. Raised amid a swirl of tabloid headlines, she had spent her adult life branding herself as her father’s poised, family-focused daughter. She marketed her clothing line with slogans about female empowerment and was finishing a book on the topic. As she spoke, Mr. Trump remained unyielding. His daughter’s eyes welled with tears, and she hurried out in frustration.

Seven months later, Ms. Trump is her father’s all- around West Wing confidante, an adviser whose portfolio appears to have few parameters, making her among the highest-ranking women in a senior staff stocked almost entirely with men.

Even though she has no government or policy experience, she plans to review some executive orders before they are signed, according to White House officials; some earlier orders had set off a firestorm. She calls cabinet officials on issues she is interested in, recently asking the United Nations ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, about getting humanitarian aid into Syria. She set up a weekly meeting with Steven Mnuchin, the