According to a memo issued in January by the Department of Justice, nepotism is not a problem. While a public official is forbidden from appointing a relative “to a civilian position in the agency . . . over which (the official) exercises jurisdiction or control,” the DOJ memo concluded that the president’s special hiring authority exempts positions in the White House from that section of the law. That reasoning cleared the way for Jared Kushner — Ivanka Trump’s husband — to take on a growing list of unpaid advising roles for his father-in-law, the president. Now, Ivanka Trump is officially part of Donald Trump’s circle of neophyte advisors.

With the title “assistant to the president,” the first daughter becomes the first child in modern political history to become the employee of a White House headed by her father. With that distinction comes a West Wing office, security clearance, and skepticism about the value of the counsel she can give to President Trump, given her lack of government experience.

Put aside concerns about ethics and nepotism for a moment and consider this: Ivanka Trump’s newly formalized, unpaid White House job means another person with no government experience is officially advising a president with no government experience.

The DOJ memo does note that conflict-of-interest laws apply to White House employees. In a letter to the US Department of Government Ethics, Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tom Carper of Delaware demanded to know more. Some of those details came out in a Friday-night document dump that revealed that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner remain beneficiaries of a $741 million business empire, and that Ivanka is keeping her stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, according to The New York Times.


Those revelations may mean that Ivanka Trump must do some tricky political maneuvering to seem authentic in her push for affordable child care. It’s also a stunning reminder that the line between government business and Trump family business remains murky. President Trump, who still refuses to release his tax returns, put his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, in charge of the Trump empire. Supposedly, they aren’t talking business with their father, even as they expand the Trump brand to his long-term financial benefit. According to The New York Times, Ivanka Trump transferred her brand’s assets into a trust overseen by a brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and a lawyer will review all new deals. But just like her father’s brand, Ivanka Trump’s brand is also enhanced by a job that places her at the president’s side and brings her into meetings with heads of state.


She has her father’s trust. But she has a lot to prove to the rest of the country when it comes to the quality of her ethics, influence, and advice.

- - -

EDITORIAL172