Ivanka Trump announces 'formal leave of absence' from Trump businesses to concentrate on family
Follows President-elect's attempts to avoid conflicts of interest by dismantling business ties
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Your support makes all the difference.Ivanka Trump has revealed she will take time out from her father’s business empire to focus on her three children in their new Washington D.C. home.
The President-elect’s daughter says she will take a “formal leave of absence” from her eponymous fashion brand and the Trump Organisation.
It follows Donald Trump’s announcement that, in a bid to avoid a conflict of interest once in the White House, he will shift his assets into a blind trust and leave the Trump Organization in his sons’ hands.
“I will no longer be involved with the management or operations of either company,” said the 35-year-old in a statement posted on her Facebook page.
The former fashion model said she had appointed former lawyer Abigail Klem.
Ms Klem will apparently manage the strategic and day-to-day operations of the business.
She went on to say that she and husband Jared Kushner will move the family to the capital, where he will be Mr Trump’s senior advisor, and she will “settle our three young children in to their new home and schools”.
Reports have previously said Ms Trump wants to fight for various causes in her spare time, including climate change, and she yesterday said she was thinking about “impactful and appropriate ways” to serve the country.
Ms Trump’s fashion line makes the majority of its clothes in China and Vietnam.
Her announcement also follows the US Office of Government Ethics director branding Mr Trump’s business divestiture attempts as “wholly inadequate”.
Brand licencing expert Michael Stone, who believes Ms Trump’s business will be more successful if customers know she is involved, told the Boston Globe: “Is it going to fail completely? I doubt it. But will it have the same growth curve?”
The Independent has asked Ivankatrump.com whether she has taken the step back to help lessen her father's potential conflict of interests in office.
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