Ivanka Trump said on Wednesday she would work in the White House in an unpaid, informal advisory role to the president as she sought to allay ethics concerns about working there. “I have heard the concerns some have with my advising the president in my personal capacity while voluntarily complying with all ethics rules and I will instead serve as an unpaid employee in the White House office, subject to all of the same rules as other federal employees,” she said in a statement. Questions about possible conflicts of interest arose after it was announced on March 20 that Trump, 35, would become an informal adviser to her father, President Donald Trump, with an office in the West Wing.
Speaking in a subsequent interview with Internet portal KnowMyRepublican.com, President Trump’s daughter reiterated her desire to be viewed “as a member of the White House staff that is equally deserving of the honor of serving her country by following the same rules as everybody else.” “I have no desire whatsoever to be treated differently just because I happen to be the daughter of the President of the United States,” she said. “Regardless of the fact that that happens to be the case, I have no problem whatsoever being subjected to the same objective criteria as all other employees of the White House. As a matter of fact, I consider that an honor.”
Asked to elaborate further on the reason for agreeing to renounce her salary in exchange for retaining her White House position, Trump argued that she was merely “following an old Trump family tradition” that, apparently, has everything to do with altruism and nothing whatsoever with common sense. “It’s about the way we were raised,” she explained. “Our father always taught my brothers and me to give back to the community because that’s what counts. The community is one of the main reasons for one’s success and it deserves to be given something back as a token of one’s appreciation. We were always taught to donate as much as we could, because it was our duty as a ridiculously wealthy family to help those who were not as fortunate, intelligent, hardworking or cunning as we were. This is nothing more than a natural manifestation of our upbringing, that’s all there is to it.”
“I am well aware that the image that the American public has of the Trump family is that of a bunch of money-loving monsters who would stop at nothing to realize their selfish interests. But, that’s not the case at all. Like I said, I was taught to donate and give without personal interests, and that’s exactly what I’ve decided to do. I wanted to donate my salary back to America as a way of showing you all how much being by my father and serving in one of the monumental institutions of this country really means to me. But, if you’re asking me if I’d have done the same had I not been this rich, I would have to say I would probably think twice before making a similar move. At the end of the day -being noble is great; being so without my own Rolls Royce, not so much,” she concluded.
