When Ivanka Trump appeared on 60 minutes on Sunday alongside her father, President-elect Donald Trump, she wore a bracelet from her Fine Jewelry line.
After the interview several journalists reported getting a “style alert” press release that went out about the $10,800 USD gold and diamond piece from Fine Jewelry’s vice president of sales, Monica Marder.
The email reportedly read: “Ivanka Trump wearing her favorite bangle from the Metropolis Collection on 60 Minutes.”
Since then there’s been outrage from some who say that this is just the beginning of how the Trump family plans to use their new-found political access to increase their own bottom line.
While Ivanka herself is not an elected official, she has served as an advisor in her father’s campaign and her personal connection to the president-elect has people worried she could capitalise with an unfair advantage.
In a statement to The Washington Post Abigail Klem, president of the Ivanka Trump brand, said the post-60 Minutes email was sent by a “well-intentioned marketing employee” following “customary protocol.”
Klem wrote that Marder, “like many of us, is still making adjustments post-election. We are proactively discussing new policies and procedures with all of our partners going forward.”
This is not the first time Ivanka’s companies have used their name-sake’s political moments to cash in on sales.
As Time pointed out in July, @IvankaTrump tweeted a link to the Ivanka Trump brand dress she wore at the Republican National Convention – it reportedly sold out on Macy’s and Nordstorm‘s online stores just several hours later.
This latest misstep leads to more questions about how Donald Trump will navigate his business interests with his civic duty as president.
Some are calling for an inquiry into how Mr. Trump will handle these potential conflicts of interest, including Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland and the ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
On Monday in an interview with The New York Times Mr Cummings said: “The American people have the right to know — they ought to know — exactly whether decisions are possibly being made that would benefit him, his family and his associates directly.”
Trump’s plan is reportedly to let his three eldest children run his businesses while he is in the White House and operate a ‘blind trust’ – basically an a trust independently administering the private business interests of a person in public office to prevent conflict of interest.
In an interview with CNN former Georgia Congressman and current senior Trump adviser, Jack Kingston dismissed any concerns that Trump will use the office to potentially benefit his businesses and said that the President-elect understood he was risking losing money if he won the race.
“If he was only worried about his financial well-being he would not have run for president,” said Kingston, giving an example of Trump buildings being the subject of mass protests.
“I think he has proven he is willing to risk some downside to his business for the name of running for president and being the country’s leader.
“He is a guy who realises he might have to liquidate some assets, I think the blind trust is a natural route for a lot of this, and there are just some things that he’s just going to have to get out of, but he knows that. He’s seen that example that an elected official really has to have a strong fire wall.”
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