Ivanka Trump is still an ‘informal advisor’ to Donald Trump, friend says

What’s new

Donald Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump is still an “informal advisor” to the president-elect, one of his longtime friends said CNN in an article published on Sunday.

News week I reached out to the Trump transition team via email for comment, as well as Affinity Partners, Ivanka’s husband’s investment firm. Jared Kushnerfor Ivanka and Kushner’s comments Sunday afternoon.

Why it matters

Trump has long called on his family members to help him run the White House. During his first term, Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner served as senior advisors to the president.

During Trump’s first term, Ivanka focused on “education and economic empowerment of women and their families”, as well as “job creation and economic growth through workforce development, vocational training and entrepreneurship”, according to an old White House profile.

In November 2022, shortly after Trump announced he would run for president a third time, Ivanka said on Instagram that she would no longer be in the political spotlight in the future.

“I love my father very much,” she wrote. “This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the privacy we create as a family. I have no plans to get involved in politics.”

What you need to know

Maggie Cordish, a longtime friend of Ivanka’s who joined her at the White House to work on paid family leave issues, told CNN in an article titled: “Ivanka Trump is done with politics and says that she will not return”, published Sunday, “she is still his daughter, and a trusted voice, so in that sense an informal advisor, as we all are with our family members.”

An anonymous source who CNN said is familiar with Ivanka’s “thinking” told the outlet that if she chooses to share her opinion and have influence on the next administration, “it will never be something people see publicly”.

What people say

Ivanka said on the Lex Friedman Podcast in July, “For politics, it’s a pretty dark world. There’s a lot of darkness, a lot of negativity, and it’s really at odds with what makes me feel good as a human being. And It’s a really difficult job, so for me and my family it’s a good thing not to participate.”

She explained that her decision to leave politics was “rooted in the fact that I’m a parent.” She has three children with Kushner.

“And I know today the price they would pay for me to be all-in, emotionally, in terms of my absence at such a formative time in their lives,” she said. “And I don’t want to put them through that cost.”

A representative of Trump told CNN in a statement for its Sunday story, “Ivanka has proudly led the White House’s efforts and promoted the administration’s success” on policies including criminal justice reform, combating human trafficking as well as workforce development.

What happens next

Kushner, who focused on Middle East foreign policy during Trump’s first term, is also expected to avoid taking a formal role in Trump’s second administration.

Two sources familiar with Kushner’s “current thinking,” as CNN put it, said in a Nov. 15 article that Trump’s son-in-law is not likely to take a formal position in the White House, but rather d ‘to be a foreigner. advise.

During this time, Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, was Trump was chosen to become US ambassador to France during his second term.