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- President Donald Trump admitted to The Atlantic that neither he nor his daughter Ivanka knew exactly what her role in the White House would be when she joined the administration as an advisor in 2017.
- Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner have faced resistance from other senior officials who doubted their qualifications and wonder what exactly they do in the White House.
- Ivanka has mostly advocated for global women’s empowerment and workforce development initiatives as well as serving as one of her father’s most trusted confidants.
- Kushner’s policy portfolio includes everything from criminal justice reform to immigration and even US policy towards the Middle East.
- Visit Businessinsider.com for more stories.
President Donald Trump admitted neither he nor his daughter Ivanka knew exactly what her role would be in the White House when she joined the administration as an advisor in 2017 according to a new report.
In a new profile of Ivanka from The Atlantic’s Elaina Plott, Trump said that Ivanka’s exact job coming in was unclear.
"So I didn’t know," Trump told The Atlantic. “I’m not sure she knew.”
The Atlantic described Ivanka as one of Trump’s most trusted confidants and as relatively well-liked within the West Wing — but also reported that she’s faced resistance from other senior officials who doubted her qualifications and questioned what exactly she does from her unpaid role.
In particular Chief of Staff John Kelly, the Atlantic reported, was highly suspicious of Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, often disparagingly referring to them as "playing government" and bemoaning the administration having "three secretaries of state" because of the couple’s level of influence with the president.
While Trump claimed to the magazine that Ivanka was responsible for "creating millions of jobs," her actual, concrete achievements have been harder to pin down.
After Ivanka spearheaded an unsuccessful effort to convince the President to stay in the Paris Climate Accords, she hunkered down and selected a "portfolio" of a few key issues, including global women’s empowerment and workforce development, that she would focus on exclusively, The Atlantic said.
Read more: 67% of Americans don’t know what Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump actually do in the White House
The Atlantic’s reporting cited her biggest accomplishments as convincing big companies like IBM and Microsoft to commit to investing in technical job re-training for employees, lobbying for the expansion of the child tax credit to be included in the 2017 Republican tax reform bill and for paid family leave legislation, and promoting global women’s empowerment initiatives.
Kushner’s policy portfolio includes everything from criminal justice reform to immigration and even US policy towards the Middle East.
Kushner has been scrutinized over his reportedly close relationship with Saudi Arabian Crown Price Mohammed Bin-Salman and conducting sensitive government business on WhatsApp, an unsecured platform.
Ivanka and Kushner also raised eyebrows after a White House whistleblower told congressional committees that Trump stepped in to grant the couple security clearances after they had both been initially rejected for clearance status.
Read the full story at The Atlantic.
See Also:
- Trump dismisses questions about WikiLeaks after Julian Assange’s arrest
- Trump is running his administration like it’s ‘The Apprentice,’ with over a dozen people in ‘acting’ status at top positions who could go at any time
- Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is out — here are all the casualties of the Trump administration so far
SEE ALSO: Trump reportedly pressured his staff to grant Ivanka and Jared Kushner their security clearances
Source: Business Insider – gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta)