But not all assets, it turns out, are created equal. So the daughter-in-chief will, it seems, keep her stake in the Trump International Hotel, a 15-minute stroll from the White House, which just happens to boast "the Ivanka Trump Suite" and "The Spa by Ivanka Trump." ("The Spa by Ivanka Trump and Fitness Center transitions guests from the Technogym setting of the Fitness Center to the tranquil spa haven that is calming, balancing, purifying, revitalizing, and healing...") There, many a foreign diplomat or special interest mogul can "calm, energize, [and] restore" himself or herself, while angling for an "in" with the family. We don't know precisely the nature of what the Trump family stands to gain from the hotel because its books aren't made public, but it's reasonable to assume that we're not talking losses. Besides this other D.C. domain, Ivanka and Jared will remain the beneficiaries of their mutual business empires now valued at about three quarters of a billion dollars, according to White House ethics filings.
But wait. There's an even more explicit rule against using public office (like, say, the White House) for private gain: Title 5 section 2635.702. On that subject, the section states that "an employee shall not use his public office for his own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity."
Okay, that's wordy. And though the rule doesn't apply to the president or vice president -- we have Nelson Rockefeller to thank for that, but more on him later -- for any other executive office position, the rule explains that "status as an employee is unaffected by pay or leave status." That means that you can't say someone is not an employee just because she isn't drawing a paycheck, which means she isn't, in fact, exempt just because she can't show a W-2 form.
The second rule of family business is undoubtedly: control the means of enforcement. And President Trump just got his man onto the Supreme Court, so even if ethical charges rose to the highest court in the land, the family has at least a little insurance.
Bankers and Presidents: A Walk Through History
The idea of powerful bloodlines collaborating is nothing new in either business or politics. At the turn of the twentieth century, mogul families routinely intermarried to spawn yet more powerful and profitable business empires. And when it comes to Oval Office politics, American history is littered with multi-generational public servants with blood ties to presidents. Abraham Lincoln's oldest son, Robert, a Republican, served as secretary of war in the administrations of Presidents James Garfield and Chester Arthur, and finally as U.S. minister to Great Britain during President Benjamin Harrison's administration. Dwight D. Eisenhower's son, John, became a decorated brigadier-general, served as assistant staff secretary in the White House while his father was in office and was later appointed ambassador to Belgium under President Richard Nixon (once his father's vice-president). But neither of them inflated the coffers of the family business in the process.
Whether family business connections might influence prominent figures in the White House isn't a subject new to the Trump era either. In 1974, when Gerald Ford, who took over the presidency after Richard Nixon's impeachment, nominated Nelson Rockefeller to be his vice president, Nelson's brother David ran the Chase Manhattan Bank (now JPMorgan Chase). Questions naturally arose about the notorious wealth and political reach of the Rockefeller family. Nelson, the grandson of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, had even worked at the bank and had been on the boards of multiple oil companies.
That same year, the Department of Justice conveniently concluded that conflict of interest laws did not apply to the office of the vice president -- but not before Democratic Senator Robert Byrd asked, "Can't we at least agree... that the influence is there, that it is a tremendous influence, that it is more influence than any president or vice president ever had?" And yet, as fabulously wealthy and linked in as Nelson Rockefeller was, his situation doesn't even compare to the family business tangle in the Trump White House.
There have been other family members than the Trumps and Jared Kushner in positions of significance in the White House. When, for instance, Woodrow Wilson fell gravely ill in 1919, his second wife, Edith, stepped in to act on his behalf, essentially running the government in a blanket of secrecy from his bedside. Her intention, however, was never to make hay with a family business, but to ensure that her husband's policies prevailed. The two Bush presidents, with a business and banking legacy that snaked back a century, were elected, not handed power. And though Bill Clinton's reign in the Oval Office enabled wife Hillary to garner enough public recognition (and banking connections) to successfully run for senator in New York State, become secretary of state under President Obama, and launch two ultimately unsuccessful presidential bids, the Clintons only became super-wealthy after Bill's time in office. Though their charity foundation's ties to foreign governments remain suspect, they never had a private business while Bill was in the White House.
What can't be found in the historical record is someone's child, wife, or relations holding court in the West Wing while expanding a family business, no less a network of them. The present situation, in other words, is unique in the annals of American history. Only 100 days into Donald Trump's presidency, he already has something of the look of the authoritarian kleptocrats elsewhere on the planet who siphon state wealth into their own bank accounts and businesses.
And remember, the Trump empire is also the Kushner empire. Jared's family business depends on global investors hailing from countries that just happen to be in his White House portfolio. He, for example, led the efforts to prepare for the state visit to Mar-a-Lago of the Chinese president (while the Kushner business was engaged in high-level talks with a major Chinese financial conglomerate). A Russian state-owned bank under U.S. sanctions whose chairman met with Jared in December referred to him as the head of Kushner Companies, though he was already visibly if not yet officially a Trump adviser.
He is similarly the administration's point man for Middle East "peace," even though his family has financial relationships with Israel. Meanwhile, in his role as head of the newly formed White House Office of American Innovation, the potential opportunities to fuse government and private business opportunities are likely to prove endless.
Nepotism on Parade
Faced with the dynasty-crushing possibility of selling his business or even placing it in a blind trust, Donald Trump chose instead to let his two older sons, Eric and Donald Jr., manage it. Talk about smoke and mirrors. While speaking with Forbes in March, Eric indicated that he would provide his father with updates on the Trump Organization "quarterly" -- but who truly believes that father and sons won't discuss the family empire far more frequently than that?
The family has already racked up a laundry list of global conflicts of interest that suggest ways in which the White House is likely to become a moneymaking vehicle for the Trump line. There's Turkey, for instance, where the Trump Organization already has a substantial investment, and where President Trump recently called President Recip Tayyip Erdogan to congratulate him on his power-grabbing, anti-democratic victory in a disputed election to change the country's constitution. Given Trump business interests globally, you could multiply that call by the world.
Meanwhile, Ivanka's brand isn't just doing business as usual, it's killing it. Since 2017, according to the Associated Press, "global sales of Ivanka Trump merchandise have surged." As a sign of that, the brand's imports, mostly from China, have more than doubled over the previous year. As for her husband, he remained the CEO of Kushner Companies through January, only then abdicating his management role in that real-estate outfit and 58 other businesses, though remaining the sole primary beneficiary of most of the associated family trusts. His and Ivanka's children are secondary beneficiaries. That means any policy decision he promotes could, for better or worse, affect the family business and it doesn't take a genius to know which of those options he's likely to choose.
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