House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was having breakfast at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington last Friday with a friend. Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman sat at a table nearby, poring over papers with a colleague ahead of a meeting at the White House.

Legendary Washington power broker Vernon Jordan — a famous Bill Clinton golf buddy — was at his regular table. In the corner, three former top advisers to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama were catching up.


And then there was Ivanka Trump, taking a meeting with PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi at the most see-and-be-seen dining room in town — at the power breakfast rush hour.

Her appearance in the crowded restaurant marked something of her official Washington launch in neutral, bipartisan territory: an outsider from midtown Manhattan announcing to the establishment that she’s serious about her new hometown. But the closely watched first daughter — the only member of President Donald Trump’s immediate family to have followed him to D.C. — isn’t doing it alone.

Joining her with Nooyi and PepsiCo Executive Vice President Jon Banner was Dina Powell, the well-connected former George W. Bush administration official who recently left her job overseeing corporate philanthropy at Goldman Sachs to join the Trump White House, where she officially started working last week.

Her title is assistant to the president and senior counselor for economic initiatives, but her role is broader than that.

Even before she started, Powell was offering hiring advice to an administration short on government experience. When former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn was named chief economic adviser to Trump, Powell vouched for two of Cohn’s hires: Jeremy Katz, who worked under former Bush chief of staff Joshua Bolten, and Ashley Hickey, another Bush administration alum, according to a source familiar with the hiring.

But Powell, who relocated from New York City to Washington for her new job, is currently seen as particularly invaluable to Ivanka Trump — someone who can serve as something of a trail guide with her vast, Davos-style network.

At the Four Seasons, according to more than half a dozen people who were there, Powell guided the first daughter through the dining room, introducing her around to people she has known for years.

“This is the resistance,” Tom Nides, a former deputy secretary of state under Hillary Clinton and a top backer of her failed presidential bid, joked when Powell introduced Trump to his table, where he sat with former top Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan and Ben Rhodes, the former Obama foreign policy adviser and speechwriter.

Ivanka Trump chuckled gamely, according to a person who heard the conversation, and replied: “Good luck with that.” (A source close to Ivanka Trump denied the wry comment, and said she just laughed.)

The first daughter approached the table where Pelosi — who has called for an FBI investigation into President Trump’s connections to Russia — sat and inquired politely about her daughter Alexandra Pelosi’s latest film project for HBO.

She paid her respects to Jordan and stopped by a table of high-powered Democratic and Republican lobbyists and consultants that included Heather Podesta and former Clinton surrogate Hilary Rosen. One point of bonding between Ivanka Trump and the wealthy Democrats in the room: a shared real estate broker.

After making the rounds in the restaurant, Trump and Powell departed together for the White House, leaving the room buzzing behind them.

Trump’s guest list at the two working dinner parties she has thrown since her father’s election — which have brought together CEOs and business leaders to discuss paid family leave and women’s economic empowerment issues — were filled with names gleaned from Powell’s Rolodex.

National Urban League CEO Marc Morial, for instance, attended a dinner Trump hosted at Wendi Deng’s apartment in Manhattan. Morial worked on a Goldman initiative aimed at getting capital to small businesses.

Since moving to Washington, Trump and Powell have sat down for coffee with Priscilla Chan, who is married to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Last week, Trump hosted Cohn and Powell along with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and others at her Kalorama home for a working dinner to hear ideas about how the private sector benefits on women’s economic empowerment issues.

Trump is leaning heavily on Powell’s overlapping work and social circles as she tries to build out legislative proposals for funding early child care and instituting paid parental leave. Powell’s initiatives at Goldman included one devoted to offering mentorships and funding to female entrepreneurs around the world.

So far, Trump has one win to show for it — getting women’s issues included as an agenda item at the president’s council meeting with CEOs.

“Dina’s specific skill set in any White House is an extraordinary benefit,” said consultant Juleanna Glover, a proud friend of Powell’s. “For this particular White House, where the president’s daughter is focused on women and the workplace issues, it’s brilliant to bring her on.”

