Under the trust, which was executed in the first week of March, Ms. Trump may address potential conflicts in one of two ways: recuse herself from related White House business or<br />veto a potential business deal for her company, said Jamie Gorelick, a longtime ethics lawyer in Washington who is an independent adviser to the Ivanka M. Trump Business Trust.<br />Despite Trust, Ivanka Trump Still Wields Power Over Her Brand -<br />By RACHEL ABRAMSMARCH 20, 2017<br />What role Ivanka Trump plays in her father’s White House is among the pressing questions<br />at the intersection of politics and business under the Trump administration.<br />Unlike her husband, Jared Kushner, who is a top adviser to Mr. Trump, Ms. Trump does not hold a formal job at the White House and therefore is not likely to be considered a federal employee under ethics rules, which prohibit government workers from participating in matters<br />that can enrich their personal business interests, according to government ethics specialists.<br />Instead, President Trump has moved his business interests into a trust overseen by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.,<br />and Allen H. Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of his real estate company, the Trump Organization.<br />But even if Ms. Trump is trying to tread carefully, her trust raises questions about how effectively a voluntary arrangement<br />can minimize conflicts, said Norman L. Eisen, the chief White House ethics adviser under President Barack Obama.<br />Ms. Trump could have put assets into a blind trust, which keeps beneficiaries in the dark about their assets — a move favored by modern presidents<br />but not commonly used by employees in the executive branch, said Richard W. Painter, the chief White House ethics adviser under President George W. Bush.<br />Ms. Trump is the sole beneficiary, said Ms. Gorelick, who provided details of the trust and Ms. Trump’s expanding White House role in interviews.
