If, like me, you love political news, you likely already know that Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s eldest daughter, now officially has a position at the White House. What no one seems to know is what that position is, and why she has it, since working in her father’s administration, even though her position is apparently unpaid, seems dangerously close to a potential ethics violation.
There’s no compelling reason why Ivanka Trump should be working at the White House. She has no experience working in government (of course, neither does the president, which is even more scary). She and her family moved to Washington D.C. after the inauguration, even though she swore at the time that she would not be taking a position in the White House, taking a leave of absence from her job at the Trump Organization and her eponymous lifestyle brand. She also wrote a book titled Women Who Work (as if she invented the concept) that is coming out next month.
So why does she need her own office and security clearance when she has no expertise to share?
President Trump seems to be making a habit of hiring his own family members as advisors, since Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner is already serving as an advisor to the president. He was recently chosen to lead the new “White House Office of American Innovation,” which seems to be responsible for a number of important, yet unrelated tasks, all of which Jared has no experience with.
Remember, at the Republican National Convention, when Ivanka made a speech, and told everyone there and everyone watching at home, that she would make sure a Trump presidency made affordable childcare a priority? Because as a “Woman Who Works” she knows all about the importance of affordable childcare, right?
I acknowledge that I see the world through rose-colored glasses, and I’m more naïve and optimistic than the average person, but even I question what a woman whose family is worth hundreds of millions of dollars knows about affordable childcare. Or affordable anything, for that matter. She can afford to have the best, most expensive of everything, which is really nice for her, but the rest of us who can’t have that can’t really relate to her. And she probably can’t really relate to us either.
A large number of Trump supporters were working class people, people who can only dream of the Trump family’s privileged lifestyle. Whatever Ivanka’s job is, it can’t be to help the average Americans she can’t possibly relate to, because she hasn’t even tried to understand them. Wearing a pretty dress and standing in front of a crowd of average Americans is not nearly the same thing as actually speaking to them and learning what matters most to them.
As much as I disagree with Trump politically, I would love to see Ivanka and other women leading such privileged lives use their influence for good, to help improve access to affordable childcare, or help girls in poor countries get an education, or improve literacy rates, or whatever cause they feel passionate about. But getting a job at the White House working for your father, even though you have no experience working in government, doesn’t do anything to help the average American you claim to care so much about.