If it wasn’t nepotism before, it is now. In a strange attempt to alleviate concerns about the ethical violations that could arise from Ivanka Trump’s unofficial advisory position, the White House announced that it would hire her as an official-but-unpaid employee, making up an unprecedented title of ‘Special Assistant to the President’ for Ivanka and officially bringing her onto the White House staff.
This, the Trump administration claims, should alleviate any concerns about her role.
It does not. It only cements them further. See, Donald Trump does not yet understand that when we say he is violating ethical boundaries, it’s not about how officially she’s been hired and what her salary is - although those two factors can certainly aggravate the problem. It’s about the fact that she is advising him on political decisions because she is his daughter. He just can’t understand that nepotism is about giving someone an unjust position of power, not merely about giving them a salary.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are now both White House employees. Once upon a time they were dating and met using a dating app. It doesn’t matter how fondly you feel about your family - there is no legal justification for putting the presidential family in charge, which is what he’s doing.
Further, there is now an even greater reason to be concerned about the likelihood that President Trump is taking his hands off the family business - after all, both Jared and Ivanka had a previous role in it, and now they too must divest and shed ties to it in order to protect the White House from violating basic ethical guidelines. She cannot talk to her brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric, now about the family business they run.
The former Obama and Bush era administrative experts on ethical violations both agree that this is a display of nepotism, and that the 1967 nepotism law applies to the White House staff and members. The Justice department, in contrast, has issued a statement saying they agree with Trump about not considering it nepotism. The decision was questionable at best.
This is a more family-run presidency than any in modern history. According to CNN contributor Kate Brower, only George W. Bush had anywhere near as high a level of involvement during his father’s presidency, and even then he never sat it on high-level meetings. Ivanka, however, appears to be a critical part of Trump’s decision making for national policy, and has been seen taking part in several key meetings with foreign ambassadors already.
We didn’t elect Ivanka. We didn’t elect Jared. We did not elect the Trump family (hell, statistically, most of us didn’t even elect Trump). He cannot put his family in charge. He cannot continue to display signs of cronyism and nepotism. We don’t care about whether they as individuals take government salaries (although, speaking of which, Trump said he would forego payment and instead is choosing to collect it and eventually donate it to charity - which of course has gone well for him before).
We don’t want Trump giving power to people simply because they’re close to him, and that’s what he’s doing. This change shows that he’s just not getting it. Either out of ignorance or willful denial, Trump does not understand the fears of the people.