Ivanka Gets China Trademark Hours After Mar-A-Lago Lovefest With Premier
Ivanka Trump’s company received provisional trademark approvals from the Chinese government on the same day that she dined with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The decision, which gave Trump a monopoly on selling Ivanka-branded jewelry, bags and spa services in China, was reached just hours before she and husband Jared Kushner, sat next to Xi and his wife for dinner at President Trump’s vacation home.
The news underscores the unprecedented conflicts of interest that both Donald and Ivanka Trump face in their new offices — and the latest news has ethics watchdogs up in arms.
“Put the business on hold,” Richard Painter, the top White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told the AP.
“Ivanka has so many China ties and conflicts, yet she and Jared appear deeply involved in China contacts and policy. I would never have allowed it,” added Norman Eisen, who served the same role under President Obama.
Ivanka Trump has placed her assets under a family-run trust and pledged to recuse herself from potential conflicts of interest. But critics point out she still benefits from deals that she may play a role in promoting.
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO