Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Questions Mount About Ivanka’s White House Role — ‘No One Really Knows What She Does’

As President Trump continues to lay more responsibilities at the feet of Jared Kushner, some have begun to ask what exactly his wife and first daughter Ivanka Trump will be doing within the new administration.

“No one really knows what she does exactly,” a source close to the administration [told](told ) The Hill. Trump is nonetheless slated to move into an office in the West Wing, and has been seen at high-profile meeting between her father and foreign leaders. She and Kushner have also been credited with putting the kibosh on an effort from more conservative administration elements to roll back anti-discrimination protections for queer and transgender people.

Many on the left have pinned their hopes on Trump to push a socially liberal agenda within the White House. Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, recently urged Trump in a BuzzFeed op-ed to defend the family planning organization from budget cuts.

But some caution that Trump will not be running the show.

“The idea that she can change every single thing that critics views as wrong is incredibly unfair,” an unnamed friend told The Hill. “She spent her life as an entrepreneur, and she has an opportunity to empower women in a real way.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.