WASHINGTON, DC — For the Trumps, business has always been closely tied to family. President Trump's father, Fred Trump, financed his son's start in the real estate business. The president's children took on major roles at the Trump Organization.

Now that he sits in the Oval Office and controversy envelops his administration, though, the president's eldest daughter is being lambasted for manufacturing her business's products abroad. Democrats are demanding his son-in-law Jared Kushner lose his top-level security clearance. And Donald Trump Jr. has lawyered up after the all-consuming Russia investigation has centered on him. "From a management standpoint, when you have family members [in the workplace], the family members are treated with kid gloves," said Hana Callaghan, director of the Government Ethics Program at Santa Clara University. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

This can create significant problems in any business. When you're in public office, it's worse. Under normal circumstances, the president's choice to work so closely with his children — his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Kushner at the White House, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump at the Trump Organization — is enough to inflame his opponents. Critics say it's wildly inappropriate for Trump's kids to run a business he said he would distance himself from as president. And the inclusion of his daughter and son-in-law at the highest levels of government without the usual qualifications, on the other hand, is seen by some as political malpractice.



But after Trump Jr. published emails last week proving the campaign was willing to work with Russia against Hillary Clinton, the president's family ties went from a liability to a cause of crisis. It's now public knowledge that Trump Jr. and Kushner met a Russian lawyer to dig up dirt on Clinton, completely undermining the president's attempt to dismiss the investigation into his campaign as a "hoax." Trump Jr. and Kushner both face the possibility of legal consequences.

Photo by Dominique A. Pineiro/DoD via Getty Images When previous stories broke about then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Attorney General Jeff Sessions each having compromising contacts with the Russian government, Flynn was forced to resign and Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation. Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager for a time who was also present at the famous meeting with the Russian lawyer, was fired before the election as his own shady ties to Russia came into view.

But as the story now ensnares Trump's son and son-in-law, Kushner has maintained a high-level security clearance and a job as a top aide to the president, and Trump Jr. continues to head up the Trump Organization. According to Politico, the Trump campaign has paid $50,000 for Trump Jr.'s lawyer as he sorts through the fallout of his ties to Russia. Reports suggest that the White House communications team helped craft some of Trump Jr.'s statements to the press.

"What would the response be if this was not a family member?" asked Callaghan. "It may be difficult to fire them."

Sometimes, firing an employee who reflects badly on the president is the administration's best move to protect itself. Trump deflected some criticism when he fired Flynn for failing to disclose the full details of his conversations with the Russian ambassador.