IVANKA GETS OWN OFFICE IN WEST WING OF WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka now has an office at the White House, although she will not be a government employee, an administration official said on Monday.

Since Trump’s inauguration on January 20, she is often seen in the West Wing, the hub of US executive power.

On Friday, she attended a round table discussion at the White House with the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Ivanka’s lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, told the news website Politico that she will have access to classified information and be bound by the rules that apply to other White House advisers who are in fact on the government payroll.

“Our view is that the conservative approach is for Ivanka to voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not,” Gorelick told Politico.

“Having an adult child of the president who is actively engaged in the work of the administration is new ground,” the lawyer was quoted as saying.

Ivanka ’s husband, real estate developer Jared Kushner, is one of the president’s advisers and was formally sworn in as a White house official. Neither he nor his wife have any experience in elected office or governance.

The young couple’s strong influence on Trump has raised many questions about possible conflicts of interest and fuelled a broader debate on the absence of clear boundaries between the Trump family’s business dealings and the political activities of its various members.