Ivanka Trump first announced she was writing a book in June of 2016, with a video she posted on social media, describing it as a “labor of love” and likening it to “baby No. 4.” | Getty Citing ethics concerns, Ivanka skips book tour The first daughter announces on Facebook that she won’t promote her new book and plans to give her advance and any royalties to charity.

When Ivanka Trump signed a deal to publish her second self-help book in November of 2015, her father was still a longshot presidential candidate, one bombastic presence in a field of 17 Republican hopefuls.

At the time, the book, titled "Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules of Success," was intended to be a natural extension of Ivanka Trump’s eponymous fashion and lifestyle brand. The entrepreneur was expecting to spend the spring of 2017 promoting it from her perch as an executive at the Trump Organization and CEO of her fashion brand.


Plans have changed.

Ivanka Trump, who now serves as an official government adviser to her father, complete with a security clearance and an office in the West Wing, announced Thursday she won’t do any publicity for her book – no tour, no book signings, and none of the television interviews that help boost a book to the bestseller lists.

“In light of government ethics rules, I want to be clear that this book is a personal project,” she wrote Thursday in a post on her Facebook page. “I wrote it at a different time in my life, from the perspective of an executive and an entrepreneur, and the manuscript was completed before the election last November.”

She said her decision to opt out of promotion was made “out of an abundance of caution and to avoid the appearance of using my official role to promote the book.”

The First Daughter is currently locked in a possible conflict of interest issue over three new trademarks for her brand that were approved by the Chinese government while Ivanka Trump was dining with her father and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. Her attorney said that she no longer has any involvement with trademark applications submitted by her business.

It’s not the first hiccup for her publisher. The book, which is being published by the Penguin Publishing Group’s business imprint, Portfolio, was originally due out in March. But Ivanka Trump pushed her publication date to May, citing “momentous changes in her life.” She has said she did not change any of the advice in the book -- she simply rewrote a new introduction after President Donald Trump’s election.

On Thursday, ahead of her first diplomatic visit abroad to attend a W20 conference in Berlin where she is scheduled to speak on a panel with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ivanka Trump also announced she had established the Ivanka M. Trump Charitable Fund. The fund is intended to give away money earned from the advance and royalties associated with her book to charities that support the economic empowerment of women and girls.

In the Facebook post, she said she plans to donate $100,000 of her advance to the National Urban League, and $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of America.

The president of the National Urban League, Marc Morial, has been a guest at a dinner party Ivanka Trump hosted at her friend Wendi Murdoch’s New York City apartment. And in February, the first daughter visited the Greater Baltimore Urban League chapter.

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The National Urban League donation, Ivanka Trump said, will help launch a new "women's initiative" as part of its entrepreneurship program.

She has not yet announced where the rest of the money, which is being doled out via the donor-advised fund, will go.

Ivanka Trump first announced she was writing a book in June of 2016, with a video she posted on social media, describing it as a “labor of love” and likening it to “baby No. 4.” In 2009, she published her first book, "The Trump Card," in which she described what it was like to grow up in her father’s gilded world.

“It is my sincere hope that 'Women Who Work' serves as a powerful resource and that the book proceeds further benefit women and girls through the great work of the National Urban League and Boys & Girls Clubs of America,” she said in her Facebook statement.

She described the book as an attempt to give readers “the best advice, tips and skills I've learned over the years from many incredible people, on subjects including identifying opportunities, leading teams, starting companies, managing work and family, and building cultures where multidimensional women can thrive.”