Ivanka Trump has the president’s ear
‘Not looking to hit him to help myself ’
A month before Donald Trump was elected president, he and his aides watched his daughter’s coolly composed surface crack open.
Inside Trump Tower, 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 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 finally showed he was wrong, Trump’s reaction was grudging: He agreed to say he was sorry if anyone was offended. Advisers warned that would not be enough.
Ivanka Trump made an emphatic case for a fullthroated apology, according to several people who were present for the crisis discussion that unfolded in Trump’s 26th- floor office. 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, Trump remained unyielding. His daughter’ s eyes welled with tears, her face reddened, and she hurried out in frustration.
Seven months later, Ivanka 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.
The two trade thoughts from morning until late at night, according to aides. 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. She calls Cabinet officials on issues she is interested in. She set up a weekly meeting with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary.
In interviews last week, she said she intended to act as a moderating force in an administration swept into office by nationalist sentiment. Other officials added that she had weighed in on topics including climate, deportation, education and refugee policy.
Even as Ivanka Trump said she was seeking to exert more influence, she acknowledged she was a novice about Washington. “I’m still at the early stages of l earning how e ver y - thing works,” she said, “but I know enough now to be a much more proactive voice inside the White House.”
Ivanka Trump, 35, a former model, entrepreneur and hotel developer, says she will focus on gender i nequality in the United States and abroad, by aiming to create a federal paid l eave program, more affordable child care and a global fund for women who are entrepreneurs, among other efforts. Her interest in gender issues grew out of a “Women Who Work” hashtag and marketing campaign she devised a few years ago to help sell $ 99 pumps and $150 dresses. On Tuesday, the career advice book she worked on before the election, whose title echoes her hashtag, will be published.
By inserting herself into a scalding set of gender dynamics, she is becoming a proxy for dashed dreams of a female presidency and the debate about Trump’s record of conduct toward women and his views on them. Critics see her efforts as a brash feat of Trump promotion by a woman of extraordinary privilege who has learned that feminism makes for potent branding. ( Ivanka Trump is not promoting her book for ethics reasons.)
Some former employees express surprise at her new policy interest, saying she was once reluctant to grant them maternity leave. But other observers call her the administration’s best hope for progress on gender issues and say they are encouraged to see a presidential daughter, and a top member of a Republican White House, advocate federal paid family leave.
“I hope she will go on to become a great champion in this area,” said Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, which is working with Ivanka Trump on funding female entrepreneurs.
Those close t o Ivanka Trump say she is generally business- friendly and socially liberal. But she says that on many issues, she does not have strongly held views.
She has one skill unmatched by almost anyone else, family members and aides say: She can effectively convey criticism to a man who often refuses it from others, and can appeal to him to change his mind.
“I’m his daughter. I’ ve known him my entire life. He trusts me,” she said. “I don’t have a hidden agenda. I’m not looking to hit him to help myself.”
Ivanka Trump acknowledges how much she has to learn and asks the public to be patient with her.
“I do believe that in time I’ ll get to the right place,” she said. “In the short run I’ ll have missteps, and, in some cases, I’ ll take shots that I could have avoided if I had publicly said what I think.”
“I’m really, really trying to learn,” she added.
I DO BELIEVE THAT IN TIME I’LL GET TO THE RIGHT PLACE.