Ivanka Trump has the US president´s ear like few others, but in her first interview since formally joining the White House she insisted she can also disagree with her father with “total candor.”
Donald Trump´s eldest daughter and her husband Jared Kushner have emerged as key figures in the president´s inner circle, enjoying his full trust and in Kushner´s case a fast-expanding portfolio despite their lack of prior policy experience.
The first daughter already had a White House office and has been a highly visible presence at Trump´s side, hosting foreign leaders and sitting in on policy meetings, but her role had yet to be formally defined.
That changed last week when it was announced the 35-year-old businesswoman will become an unpaid federal employee, with the title of assistant to the president, in an apparent move to quell concerns about her level of security access and potential conflicts of interest.
Speaking to “CBS This Morning” in her first major interview since the inauguration, Ivanka Trump — who has often been portrayed as a moderating influence on her father — gave some insight into how she sees her unprecedented new role.
“I´m still my father´s daughter,” she said. “But I´ll weigh in with my father on the issues I feel strongly about.”
Whenever she disagrees with the Republican leader, “he knows it,” she said. “And I express myself with total candor.”
“Where I agree, I fully lean in and support the agenda” and hope to “make a positive impact. But I respect the fact that he always listens,” she added.
Ivanka Trump also addressed the charge from critics that she has failed to speak out in areas — from gay rights to abortion to climate change — where she is believed to hold views more liberal than others in the Trump administration.
Ivanka Trump has increasingly taken on a role more typical of that of a first lady, joining her father in hosting high-profile foreign leaders from Japan´s Shinzo Abe to Germany´s Angela Merkel or Canada´s Justin Trudeau. (AFP)
