The Golden Couple (Ivanka and Jared)

[GreyhoundFan]

5 minutes ago, Childless said:

What makes it even crazier is the fact that he's not just taking on a job he's not qualified for, he's taking on five or six jobs he's not qualified for.  Everytime I hear about him, Trump has added yet another problem to his list to tackle.  As a businessman, Trump should know the pitfalls of scope creep.  Why he's saddling his son-in-law with it?  It's almost as if he wants him to fail.  Or he's just a shitty businessman.  I'm putting my money on the latter.  The fact that Jared is letting him do it doesn't speak well for his business acumen either.

Here's my response to the bolded:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Um, no...just no: "Ivanka Trump’s answer to critics who want her to keep her father in check: Just trust me"

Quote

The Trump critics who are hoping and praying — even though perhaps skeptical — that Ivanka Trump will exert a moderating influence on her father are going to have to keep hoping and praying.

During an interview with CBS News's Gayle King that aired Wednesday morning, the first daughter and recently installed White House adviser made clear she is no fan of speaking publicly about her differences with her father. She said repeatedly that people are just going to have to do without her “public denouncements” and trust that she's telling President Trump what she really thinks about some of his policies.

“I would say not to conflate lack of public denouncement with silence,” Ivanka Trump told her critics. “I think there are multiple ways to have your voice heard. In some cases, it’s through protest and it’s through going on the nightly news and talking about or denouncing every issue on which you disagree with. Other times it is quietly and directly and candidly.”

She later returned to the idea that “public denouncement” isn't the answer, but insisted she tells Trump hard truths.

“I do, and almost everyone he surrounds him with does,” she said. “We’re in a unique time where noise equals, in a lot of people’s perception, advocacy. And I fundamentally disagree with that. I do think there’s a time for public denouncement. … I also think there’s a time for discussion.”

This, needless to say, isn't going to satiate those who wish Ivanka Trump's alleged moderating influence on her father would be more readily apparent. She's essentially telling people they need to take her word for it.

...

And the idea that she would be out there publicly denouncing her father is kind of a straw man; the real proof is in the results. For now, President Trump is still talking about defunding Planned Parenthood and is going in a direction on environmental issues that is completely the opposite of where some thought Ivanka Trump might be able to lead him.

If Trump does moderate on an issue that is of particular concern to his daughter, it's likely that word will leak out that she played a role in making it so. But first, there needs to be an actual example of that occurring. Trump has shown no signs of abandoning the base strategy he employed in the presidential election and very little appetite for proving that his daughter — or anybody else, frankly — can pull him back toward the middle.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I didn't see the interview referenced in this article, but the article makes some very good points: "Yes, Ivanka Trump is complicit in her father’s agenda"

Quote

Even President Trump’s harshest critics concede that his daughter Ivanka Trump is poised, intelligent and capable. Nevertheless, she suffers from the same myopia as her father. That’s a big problem, both because it reinforces the president’s shortcomings and because she is more likable, and hence more effective in moving public opinion than her father.

...

Continuing on our tour of her blind spots, Ivanka Trump plainly wants to have it both ways when it comes to Trump’s agenda. Asked whether she is complicit in her father’s actions, the Wharton business school grad pleaded ignorance. “I don’t know what it means to be complicit,” she said. She hedged, “I hope time will prove that I have done a good job and much more importantly that my father’s administration is the success that I know it will be.”

...

Third, Ivanka Trump’s argument in essence boils down to: What’s a gal like me supposed to do? Well, lots of presidential children have stayed out of government, recognizing that they lack the qualifications and experience to tackle the country’s most serious problems. Ivanka Trump may be bright and successful at monetizing the family name, but she has nothing approaching the expertise expected of people at the highest level of government.

Some presidential children have been openly critical of their father; others merely silent. The vast majority have had the modesty and self-awareness to stay out of the West Wing except for family portraits. There is no reason that Ivanka Trump cannot do the same, save one: She’s there because Trump cannot function without relatives and cronies. There is nothing commendable about that.

Ivanka Trump puts a pretty face and an eloquent voice on ethical sloth and inhumane policies. Sorry, but that makes her complicit.

Amen.

[candygirl200413]

So I vaguely remember reading this but I saw that Ronald Regan's daughter was very critical about him for many things, and yet we haven't heard a peep from Ivanka. It's just staged photos.

[fraurosena]

One does wonder though, with the China's Xi visiting Mar-a-Lago today, if this will be part of the discussions. 

At Kushners’ Flagship Building, Mounting Debt and a Foundered Deal

Quote

The Fifth Avenue skyscraper was supposed to be the Kushner Companies’ flagship in the heart of Manhattan — a record-setting $1.8 billion souvenir proclaiming that the New Jersey developers Charles Kushner and his son Jared were playing in the big leagues.

And while it has been a visible symbol of their status, it has also been a financial headache almost from the start. On Wednesday, the Kushners announced that talks had broken off with a Chinese financial conglomerate for a deal worth billions to redevelop the 41-story tower, at 666 Fifth Avenue, into a flashy 80-story ultraluxury skyscraper comprising a chic retail mall, a hotel and high-priced condominiums.[...]

There is no question that the Kushner Companies — Jared has moved to Washington to serve as an adviser to his father-in-law, President Trump — needs to reach a deal soon, either to bring in a fresh infusion of cash or a well-heeled partner willing to foot the bill, if it wants to hold on to the building. Whomever it brings on as an investor would also have to buy out Vornado Realty Trust, the family’s partner in the tower.[...]

A deal with the Chinese company, the Anbang Insurance Group, which has ties to the highest echelons of the Chinese Communist Party, would have bound together two politically connected companies. 

 

[fraurosena]

And now, purely for your delight, here is a picture storybook called...

 Jared Went To Iraq! 

 

[Tesseract]

 

"“The Daily Show” started the hashtag and paired it with satirical graphics of the first daughter." - Article from HuffPo

'Ivanktionary'

[JMarie]

8 hours ago, fraurosena said:

And now, purely for your delight, here is a picture storybook called...

 Jared Went To Iraq! 

 

I hope his suit jacket didn't get wrinkled by his special jacket.

[Soulhuntress]

On 4/6/2017 at 5:10 PM, fraurosena said:

And now, purely for your delight, here is a picture storybook called...

 Jared Went To Iraq! 

 

  The best!

[GreyhoundFan]

"Ivanka Trump and the Cult of the First Daughter"

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If you’d designed her in a lab, you could not have produced a more highly optimized first daughter than Ivanka Trump. Her wardrobe is stylish but not risky. She’s an Instagram-worthy mother of three young children. She works, but for her father, recasting ambition as fidelity to family. When her father was elected president, Trump disavowed any intention of joining his administration, insisting demurely, “I’m going to be a daughter.” Five months later, she has a West Wing office and an official title, but only so she could give her “critics the comfort that I’m holding myself to that highest ethical standard.”

Perhaps because of chromosomal coincidence — the Trump administration and the three preceding it have had a total of seven daughters and just three sons — there’s something of a Cult of the First Daughter in American politics. From Margaret Truman to Chelsea Clinton to Malia and Sasha Obama, the first daughter has captured the national imagination. She is a potent cultural symbol: a princess in a country that threw off kings yet swoons over royalty; the object of chaste affection in teen comedies; proof of her father’s capacity for tenderness.

Like Julie Nixon Eisenhower, whom Nora Ephron once described as “the only woman in America over the age of twenty who still thinks her father is exactly what she thought he was when she was six,” Ivanka Trump is her father’s defender. Like Margaret Truman, she brings out the protective instinct in her presidential father — except Harry threatened to punch out a critic who panned Margaret’s singing, while Donald Trump grumbles about threats to Ivanka’s licensing deals.

...

But if Julie Nixon Eisenhower dutifully barnstormed in service of a lie about her father’s honesty, Ivanka Trump has been able to turn her defense of her father into a branding exercise. Her latest volume, “Women Who Work,” comes out on May 2. Her ability to manage her father bolsters her credibility as a guide for young women entering workplaces where at least some men still think, talk and act like him.

However well this scenario serves the Trumps, it’s distasteful to watch a grown woman wheedling her father for policy changes as if they were treats or a credit card for a younger half-sister. On the campaign trail in September, Trump claimed to have adopted a child-care policy because Ivanka told him: “Daddy, Daddy, we have to do this.”

This style reduces important issues, from gay rights to climate change, to girlish whims, as if family benefits and the fate of the planet are as trivial as the choice of centerpieces at a wedding or a flashy sports car bestowed as a sweet 16 gift. Their preservation or destruction becomes a matter of Trump’s fatherly magnanimity, rather than a statement of national significance.

This dynamic sets us up as supplicants to the supplicant in chief: Donald Trump won’t listen to us, but maybe he’ll listen to her. It also allows Ivanka Trump to amass power and official status that far exceeds that of Luci Baines Johnson or Julie Nixon Eisenhower even while shrugging off responsibility.

For Ivanka Trump’s purposes, it’s fine if she fails in her attempts to sway her father. Her role in the administration is to be the person who listens politely to Planned Parenthood or Al Gore, rather than to actually negotiate peace in the Middle East or halt the opioid epidemic, to name two of her husband’s tasks. It’s to be well-bred and well-intentioned.

Being the person who soothes and coaxes her father, but who can’t change his essential nature, is a way of insulating Ivanka Trump from criticism — thus bolstering her book sales and lifestyle brand. “I don’t know what it means to be complicit,” Trump told CBS’s Gayle King in an interview this last week. Maybe she’s right: You can only be complicit in someone else’s game, not your own.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Eric Trump just said something very revealing about Ivanka's White House role"

Quote

The Trump White House is at once decidedly leaky and totally unknowable. We know there's lots of jockeying and infighting among President Trump's top advisers, but what we don't really know is what specific roles each of them play or who, at any given time, has the President's ear.

Enter Eric Trump. The second youngest of the male Trump offspring, Eric gave an interview to The Telegraph newspaper in which he offers a telling glimpse into the role his sister, Ivanka, plays vis-a-vis the other advisers in his father's orbit.

Here's what he told the paper:

"Ivanka is by his side in Washington. She is not involved in everything. I think she comes and goes with issues she deeply cares about but when you get to a certain level of power a lot of times, and you see this in business too, a lot of times people will say yes just because you happen to be the boss....

...I think it gives you a sounding board who is a little bit more unconventional than the 37 people that might happen to be standing round a table at that one time who just want to appease."

Totally fascinating, right?

What we learn from Eric Trump here is that: 1) Ivanka is the person in the White House who can tell her father "no" and 2) her installation as a formal adviser -- with a West Wing office -- might well be in reaction to the family's concerns that Trump wasn't getting the right sort of advice from "37 people that might be standing around a table at that one time who just want to appease."

On one level, this isn't terribly surprising. The President has made no secret of his affection for his eldest daughter. And, say whatever else you will about him, Trump is deeply loyal to his family -- and always has been.

Then there's the fact that Ivanka is, without question, the most popular member of the Trump family in the minds of the general public. She's also widely regarded -- and also widely mocked -- as the leveling or moderating force in her father's life and on his politics. Many Democrats' only solace in the wake of Trump's victory was the fact that Ivanka would be moving to Washington and would, theoretically, be by her father's side when he made big decisions.

But, seen against the backdrop of Trump's first 80-plus days in the White House, Eric Trump's comments about his sister's role are far more intriguing.

There's little question -- public posturing aside -- that Trump knows he hasn't had the start he envisioned for himself. His travel ban -- championed by chief strategist Steve Bannon -- is mired in legal appeals. The health care reform legislation went nowhere. His approval ratings are the lowest of any president ever at this early date in a term.

Change is required. But, while the media tends to focus on whether Bannon's days are numbered -- in addition to the travel ban debacle, he's been feuding with Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner -- Eric Trump's comments suggest that the addition of Ivanka is the change their dad needed.

The question always with Trump is not only who he listens to but also whether he listens to anyone at all. As in, he has surrounded himself with a panoply of people with lots of views on issues. They tell him what they think he should do -- and then he just does what he wants anyway.

Ivanka, presumably, is someone who Trump actually listens to. And, per Eric, she is also someone who can tell their father that something he is planning to say (or, closer to home, tweet) is a very bad idea -- and he might actually respond positively.

It's only been a few weeks since Ivanka took an official role in her father's White House, making it tough to analyze just how much of an influence she's exerted on her father. But, it's worth watching over these next few weeks to see if the president displays any more discipline or a willingness to compromise or move to the political middle. If he does, it's the Ivanka influence.

 

[fraurosena]

Intriguing insight into Jared's position in this article:

Unprecedented relationship strengthens as Kushner's influence grows

Quote

In an administration riven by competing factions and led by a president who demands absolute loyalty, Kushner’s position – elevated and so far nearly untouchable – emanates from his familial relationship with the President, whom Kushner often refers to as “Donald”.[...]

As the key conduit of influence to his mercurial father-in-law, Kushner's position has also given him the freedom to act as a shadow secretary of state, setting up his own channels of communication with world leaders. [...]

Simply put: Kushner’s role and relationship with the President – neither chief of staff nor regular political adviser – come with no precedents.

Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, compared the Trump-Kushner dynamic to “a mob family operation”.

“It’s as if Trump is the don and he only trusts his close family members,” Mann said. “There's no indication that experience in the real estate business prepares one for the tasks at hand. It’s the hubris of a businessman imagining he can run government just because he's a businessman. I don't know if Jared Kushner shares the hubris of his father-in-law, but he’s certainly willing to say, ‘Yes, sir.’”

I especially like the bolded comparison. So apt!

The article is much longer and delves into Jared's ballooning portfolio, among other things:

Quote

“He’s taken on a portfolio that is unprecedented in White House history,” said Paul Light, a professor at New York University who studies the presidency. “My experience is that somebody who has this much in his or her portfolio is not doing anything particularly well. They're going to flit in and out.”

 

[Childless]

19 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Intriguing insight into Jared's position in this article:

Unprecedented relationship strengthens as Kushner's influence grows

I especially like the bolded comparison. So apt!

The article is much longer and delves into Jared's ballooning portfolio, among other things:

 

I've said it before, among the numerous problems with Kushner is the fact that he seems to get yet another problem dropped in his lap everyday.  And the problems are completely unrelated to each other.  It's called scope creep and anyone with a lick of business sense knows its the kiss of death.  One person (or even a small group of people) can not do everything.  At some point, you have to trust others beyond your immediate loyal minions to do their job.  I've never set eyes on the CEO of my company, let alone talked to him.  He doesn't know me from Adam, but he trusts I'll do my job well.  If not, I'll be replaced by someone who can do the job well.  Trump has to assign these problems to the people in the correct positions to solve them instead of expecting Jared to do everything.  It's an impossible task and he's going to fail spectacularly.  This character flaw that Trump has where he trusts only his immediate family members will be his downfall (if the Russia thing doesn't get him first).

[GreyhoundFan]

"Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump: Pillars of Family-Driven West Wing"

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WASHINGTON — One has an office down the hall from the president in the White House; the other just moved into an office a floor up. One recently visited war-torn Iraq as the president’s emissary; the other will soon head to Berlin at the invitation of Germany’s chancellor.

Both have seats at the table at any meeting they choose to attend, join lunches with foreign leaders and enjoy “walk-in privileges” to the Oval Office. And with the marginalization of Stephen K. Bannon, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have emerged as President Trump’s most important advisers, at least for now.

More openly than any president before him, Mr. Trump is running his West Wing like a family business, and as he has soured on Mr. Bannon, his combative chief strategist, he has turned to his daughter and son-in-law. Their ascendance has some conservative supporters fretting about the rising influence of the urbane young New Yorkers, as some moderates and liberals swallow concerns about nepotism in the hope that the couple will temper the temperamental president.

Still, for all the talk of a velvet coup against Mr. Bannon, Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump have achieved few concrete victories. And several administration officials and people close to the family said the couple’s move against Mr. Bannon was motivated less by interest in shaping any particular policy than by addressing what they view as an embarrassing string of failures that may damage the Trump family brand.

“If you think of it as a classic business model, Trump likes to invest in winners because they make more money, and Jared has been pretty consistently winning,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an ally of Mr. Trump’s. “You’re always on a what’s-your-quarterly-report kind of relationship with Trump.”

Neither Mr. Kushner nor Ms. Trump have government experience. Mr. Kushner, 36, managed the real estate empire he inherited from his family and bought The New York Observer as a side project. Ms. Trump, 35, was groomed with her brothers to run the family company before starting a fashion brand that appealed to young, urban female consumers likely to align themselves with her father’s opponents.

But the quarterly report on Mr. Kushner shows that he has been in merger-and-acquisition mode. He has expanded his portfolio into a far-ranging set of issues, including Middle East peace, the opioid epidemic, relations with China and Mexico and reorganizing the federal government from top to bottom. “Everything runs through me,” he told corporate executives during the transition.

...

For his part, Mr. Kushner has succeeded in part because he has never tried “to explain what Jared wants,” Mr. Gingrich said. “He is very attuned to listening to Trump and trying to figure out what Trump needs, and what Trump is trying to get done.”

Mr. Kushner has served as the president’s eyes and ears. “Jared is constantly reaching outside the Trump inner circle to get feedback,” said Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, on whose board he served. “That is really making an impression on people that there’s an opportunity to have input into what’s happening in the White House.”

Mr. Kushner stays calm when others are frayed by Mr. Trump’s explosive temper. During the campaign, when the candidate was incensed by the performance of his aides, he reminded his father-in-law that four people could not be fired — himself and the three Trump siblings.

Still, if Mr. Trump lives by any management dictum, it may be this: The only indispensable employee looks back from his mirror.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Politics hasn’t stopped the growth of Ivanka Inc."

Quote

SHANGHAI (AP) — Since her father was elected president of the United States, global sales of Ivanka Trump merchandise have surged and her company has applied for at least nine new trademarks in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S — signs that the commercial engine of Ivanka’s brand is still humming even as the first daughter builds a new political career from her West Wing office.

Sales hit record levels in 2017, despite boycotts and several stores limiting her merchandise. U.S. imports, almost all of them from China, shot up an estimated 166 percent last year. The brand, which Trump still owns, says distribution is growing. It has launched new activewear and affordable jewelry lines and is working to expand its global intellectual property footprint. In addition to applying for the new trademarks, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC has won provisional approval from the Chinese government for four new trademarks since the inauguration.

Criminal conflict of interest law prohibits federal officials, like Trump and her husband, from participating in government matters that could impact their own financial interest or that of their spouse. Some argue that the more her business broadens its scope, the more it threatens to encroach on the ability of two of President Trump’s most trusted advisers to deliver credible advice on core issues like trade, intellectual property, and the value of the Chinese currency.

Trump has distanced herself from day-to-day management of her brand, which she still owns, and shifted its assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million. In a recent interview with CBS News, she argued that her business would be doing even better if she hadn’t moved to Washington and placed restrictions on her team to ensure that “any growth is done with extreme caution.”

The new trademark applications seek the right to put Ivanka’s name on lingerie in the U.S., baby clothes in the Philippines, handbags in Puerto Rico and perfume in Canada, among a host of other things. Trademarks can be used to expand a business or defend against copycats. They have ethical implications for public servants because they are granted by foreign governments and can be enormously valuable.

Her brand said in a statement that Trump herself did not sign off on the new applications, adding they are “not necessarily” an indication of planned expansion.

Ivanka Trump Marks LLC has more than 180 pending and registered trademarks in countries that include China, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, Israel, Canada and Saudi Arabia. In China alone the company has 32 pending trademarks.

Ivanka and Kushner have taken on prominent roles as China interlocutors in the administration. Norman Eisen, who served as Barack Obama’s chief White House ethics lawyer, said he would “never have allowed it.”

“Ivanka has so many China ties and conflicts, yet she and Jared appear deeply involved in China contacts and policy,” he said. “For their own sake and the country’s, Ivanka and Jared should consider stepping away from China matters.”

Jamie Gorelick, an attorney for Ivanka Trump, said she and her husband would steer clear of specific areas that could impact her business, but are under no legal obligation to step back from huge swaths of policy, like trade with China.

“The ethics rules restrict participation in ‘particular matters’ that focus on the interests of a discrete and identifiable class,” she said. “Foreign policy toward China is not a particular matter: it affects diverse national interests and every sector of society.”

 

 

[fraurosena]

7 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

“Ivanka has so many China ties and conflicts, yet she and Jared appear deeply involved in China contacts and policy,” he said. “For their own sake and the country’s, Ivanka and Jared should consider stepping away from China matters.”

There is absolutely no chance of them stepping away unless somebody makes them. And for now, nobody is.
(But fingers crossed that behind the scenes people are furiously working towards it.)

[GreyhoundFan]

The WaPo published a good article about Ivanka's business: "Ivanka’s biz prospers as politics mixes with business"

Quote

SHANGHAI — Since her father was elected president of the United States, global sales of Ivanka Trump merchandise have surged and the company has applied for at least nine new trademarks in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. The commercial engine of the first daughter’s brand is stronger than ever even as she builds a new political career from her West Wing office.

Sales hit record levels in 2017, despite boycotts and several stores limiting her merchandise. U.S. imports, almost all from China, shot up an estimated 166 percent last year.

The brand, which Ivanka Trump no longer manages but still owns, says distribution is growing. It has launched new active wear and affordable jewelry lines, and is working to expand its global intellectual property footprint. In addition to applying for the new trademarks, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC has won provisional approval from the Chinese government for at least five since the inauguration.

The commercial currents of President Donald Trump’s White House are unprecedented in modern American politics, ethics lawyers say. They have created an unfamiliar landscape riven with ethical pitfalls, and forced consumers and retailers to wrestle with the unlikely passions now inspired by Ivanka Trump’s mid-market collection of ruffled blouses, shifts and wedges.

Using the prestige of government service to build a brand is not illegal. But criminal conflict-of-interest law prohibits federal officials, like Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, from participating in government matters that could impact their own financial interest or that of their spouses. Some argue that the more her business broadens its scope, the more it threatens to encroach on the ability of two trusted advisers to deliver credible counsel to the president on core issues like trade, intellectual property and the value of Chinese currency.

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advises Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

In fact, on April 6, Ivanka Trump’s company won provisional approval from the Chinese government for three new trademarks, giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world’s second-largest economy. That night, the first daughter and her husband sat next to the president of China and his wife for a steak and Dover sole dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

The scenario underscores how difficult it is for the president’s daughter, to separate business from politics in her new position at the White House.

In a statement Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Ivanka Trump brand said that all 2017 Chinese trademarks were defensive, filed to prevent counterfeiters or squatters from using her name.

To address ethical concerns, Ivanka Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts. She is also no longer running her design business and has given day-to-day responsibility to Abigail Klem, president of the brand. Meanwhile, her husband has taken steps to distance himself from his sprawling New York real estate business, divesting some of his business interests including his stake in a major Fifth Avenue skyscraper.

“Ivanka will not weigh in on business strategy, marketing issues or the commercial terms of agreements,” her attorney, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement. “She has retained authority to direct the trustees to terminate agreements that she determines create a conflict of interest or the appearance of one.”

China, however, remains a nagging concern.

“Ivanka has so many China ties and conflicts, yet she and Jared appear deeply involved in China contacts and policy. I would never have allowed it,” said Norman Eisen, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President Barack Obama. “For their own sake, and the country’s, Ivanka and Jared should consider stepping away from China matters.”

Instead, the first daughter and her husband have emerged as prominent interlocutors with China, where they have both had significant business ties. Last year, Kushner pursued hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate investments from Anbang Insurance Group, a financial conglomerate with close ties to the Chinese state. After media reports about the deal, talks were called off.

Publicly, Ivanka Trump has taken a gracious, charming approach toward Beijing. During the Mar-a-Lago meetings, her daughter, 5-year-old Arabella, stood in a gilded room and sang a traditional Chinese song, in Mandarin, for China’s president, Xi Jinping. The video, which was lavishly praised by Chinese state media, played over 2.2 million times on China’s popular news portal qq.com.

The week of the summit, 3.4 tons of Ivanka Trump handbags, wallets and blouses arrived in the U.S. from Hong Kong and Shanghai. U.S. imports of her merchandise grew an estimated 40 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Panjiva Inc., which maintains and analyzes global shipping records.

Gorelick, Ivanka Trump’s attorney, said that she and her husband would steer clear of specific areas that could impact her business, or be seen as conflicts of interest, but are under no legal obligation to step back from huge swaths of policy, like trade with China.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Trademarks can be signs of corporate ambition, though many countries — such as China, where “trademark squatting” is rampant — also allow for defensive filings to prevent copycats from using a brand.

Trademarks pose ethical, and possibly legal, implications for government employees because they are granted by foreign states and confer the monopoly right to sell branded products in a particular country — an entitlement that can be enormously valuable. Intellectual property lawyers say trademarks are also a crucial prerequisite for cutting licensing deals, which form the basis of both Ivanka Trump’s and Donald Trump’s global business strategies.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group, on Tuesday expanded the scope of its federal lawsuit against President Trump to include trademark approvals from China in its list of alleged constitutional violations. The emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting anything of value from foreign governments without congressional approval.

As a White House employee, Ivanka Trump is also subject to the same rule. “She needs to be careful,” said Painter, the former Bush administration lawyer, who is advising on the lawsuit. “If her trademarks are anything but routine they also would be prohibited emoluments from the Chinese government.”

The president has dismissed the suit as “totally without merit.”

In a statement, Klem said the trademarks are business as usual, and in some regions to prevent “trademark infringement.”

“We have recently seen a surge in trademark filings by unrelated third parties trying to capitalize on the name and it is our responsibility to diligently protect our trademark,” Klem said.

Today, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC has 16 registered trademarks in China and more than 30 pending applications, along with at least five marks granted preliminary approval since the inauguration, according to China’s Trademark Office database and gazette. Database filings are not immediately updated and may lag actual approvals. Altogether, they cover a wide range of goods and services, including cosmetics, jewelry, leather handbags, luggage, clothes, shoes, retail, spa and beauty services. There is no sign the recent approvals were particularly swift. China’s Trademark Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Globally, the company has more than 180 pending and registered trademarks in countries including Canada, India, Japan, Israel, Mexico, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, as well as the U.S. and Europe, public records show. In December, the company applied for five trademarks, covering handbags and wallets in Puerto Rico, and lingerie and other clothes in the U.S. After the inauguration, the company filed four more applications, for branded clothing and shoes in the Philippines, and perfume and other items in Canada.

Ivanka Trump did not sign off on the new trademark applications, her brand said in a statement, adding that they are “not necessarily an indication that the brand is planning to launch a category or a store in a specific territory.”

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

...

“You can’t separate Ivanka from her role in life and from her business,” said Allen Adamson, founder of BrandSimpleConsulting. “Her celebrity status is now not only being fueled by her wealth and her family connection, but by her huge role in the White House. All that buzz is hardwired to her products.” That, he added, is a competitive advantage other brands just can’t match — though it does come with risk.

Things could easily cut the other way for the first daughter. Ashley King, 28 of Calabasas, California, bought Ivanka Trump black flats and a cardigan several years ago. But King, who voted for Hillary Clinton, said she believes Trump’s role in the White House represents a conflict of interest.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Citing ethics concerns, Ivanka skips book tour"

Quote

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.

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.”

I'm sorry, I just can't believe she'd willingly donate her profits to any charity that doesn't have the name Trump in it.

[fraurosena]

42 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Citing ethics concerns, Ivanka skips book tour"

I'm sorry, I just can't believe she'd willingly donate her profits to any charity that doesn't have the name Trump in it.

Ugh. This whole "I'm not promoting" thing is one big sneaky promotion.

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

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.”

Ugh, how Gwyneth Paltrow of her to bestow her great Life Wisdom upon us. 

Also, I'm imagining culture as some sort of  goopy yogurt-like substance in which multidimensional women are successfully grown in laboratory conditions following the Ivanka protocol.

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

Ok fine, I just spent way too long trying to link to the Wapo article about Kissinger damming Kushner with faint praise.  I give up.  I cannot do it on my phone.  You'll all have to go Google it for now.

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, PreciousPantsofDoom said:

Ok fine, I just spent way too long trying to link to the Wapo article about Kissinger damming Kushner with faint praise.  I give up.  I cannot do it on my phone.  You'll all have to go Google it for now.

Here you go: "Henry Kissinger’s lukewarm non-endorsement of Jared Kushner is even more damning than it seems"

Quote

Time magazine has named top White House adviser Jared Kushner as one of its 100 most influential people. Usually, when you're given that distinction, a magazine like Time will reach out to someone who knows you and can vouch for your superior influential-ness and prowess.

Instead, Kushner got Henry Kissinger.

Here is Kissinger's write-up for Kushner, with whom he has apparently spoken a few times:

Transitioning the presidency between parties is one of the most complex undertakings in American politics. The change triggers an upheaval in the intangible mechanisms by which Washington runs: an incoming President is likely to be less familiar with formal structures, and the greater that gap, the heavier the responsibility of those advisers who are asked to fill it.

This space has been traversed for nearly four months by Jared Kushner, whom I first met about 18 months ago, when he introduced himself after a foreign policy lecture I had given. We have sporadically ­exchanged views since. As part of the Trump family, Jared is familiar with the intangibles of the President. As a graduate of Harvard and NYU, he has a broad education; as a businessman, a knowledge of administration. All this should help him make a success of his daunting role flying close to the sun.

Kushner isn't the only member of the Trump team to get some lukewarm words about his job rather than himself. Former White House chief of staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) wasn't exactly dispensing compliments to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

But Kissinger comes from the same party as the White House. And if you read these two paragraphs closely, it's not just that he's damning Kushner with faint praise; he's also making a very unfriendly parallel to Greek mythology.

The first paragraph above says nothing about Kushner, but instead about the job he faces. Let's take the rest sentence by sentence:

...

“All this should help him make a success of his daunting role flying close to the sun.”

This seems like it might be a vote of confidence, but it's also thick with not-so-friendly subtext. Kissinger writes that the basic elements of Kushner's biography outlined above “should” help make him successful -- but also that he's taken on a “daunting role flying close to the sun."

That seems a clear reference to Icarus in Greek mythology. Icarus was given wings made of feathers and wax by his father, Daedalus, and was told not to fly too close to the sun, for fear of melting the wax. But Icarus quickly fell in love with flight and forgot his father's admonition, falling to his death.

It's a tale about hubris, of which Kushner has often been accused of having too much. And it's a clear nod to the many problems Kushner has been tasked with, including Middle East peace, the opioid epidemic and overhauling how government functions.

Translation: Good luck, kid.

 

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Here you go: "Henry Kissinger’s lukewarm non-endorsement of Jared Kushner is even more damning than it seems"

 

"We have sporadically exchanged views since." = sometimes they bump into each other at Starbucks

[AmazonGrace]

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/04/john-oliver-jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-last-week-tonight?mbid=social_twitter

 

The best bit starts at about 12 min and culminates to a clip of Jared speaking. 

[candygirl200413]

@AmazonGrace I think this was my favorite episode cause I couldn't stop laughing, especially with the list of Jared's jobs.

Also maybe I'm blanking on this, but how isn't this violating nepotism laws? Or are repubs just going to turn the other cheek forever? Especially how now Ivanka has her OWN CHEIF OF STAFF LIKE WTF.