Key Points:
- China granted Ivanka Trump three trademarks on the same day she met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar a Lago.
- The same week, Ivanka Trump imported 3.4 tons of handbags, wallets, and blouses from Hong Kong and Shanghai — meaning U.S. trade with China is vital to her business and profits.
- What else will Donald and Ivanka Trump give away to China in return for personal business favors? Ivanka still has 32 pending trademark applications with China.
“This is a perfect example of what happens when Trump and his family solicit favors from foreign countries and adversaries. If China is comfortable trading valuable trademarks to Ivanka Trump in exchange for Trump not calling them currency manipulators, there’s nothing stopping adversaries like Russia or North Korea from pushing Trump and his family to do their bidding. This isn’t putting America first, it’s selling out with very serious national security and economic consequences.” — Kevin McAlister, American Bridge spokesperson
AP: Ivanka’s biz prospers as politics mixes with business
By Erika Kinetz and Anne D’Innocenzio, 4/18/17
On April 6, Ivanka Trump’s company won provisional approval from the Chinese government for three new trademarks, giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world’s second-largest economy. That night, the first daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, sat next to the president of China and his wife for a steak and Dover sole dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
The scenario underscores how difficult it is for Trump, who has tried to distance herself from the brand that bears her name, to separate business from politics in her new position at the White House.
As the first daughter crafts a political career from her West Wing office, her brand is flourishing, despite boycotts and several stores limiting her merchandise. U.S. imports, almost all of them from China, shot up an estimated 166 percent last year, while sales hit record levels in 2017. The brand, which Trump still owns, says distribution is growing. It has launched new activewear and affordable jewelry lines and is working to expand its global intellectual property footprint. In addition to winning the approvals from China, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC applied for at least nine new trademarks in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. after the election.
The commercial currents of the Trump White House are unprecedented in modern American politics, ethics lawyers say. They have created an unfamiliar landscape riven with ethical pitfalls, and forced consumers and retailers to wrestle with the unlikely passions now inspired by Ivanka Trump’s mid-market collection of ruffled blouses, shifts and wedges.
Using the prestige of government service to build a brand is not illegal. But criminal conflict of interest law prohibits federal officials, like Trump and her husband, from participating in government matters that could impact their own financial interest or that of their spouse. Some argue that the more her business broadens its scope, the more it threatens to encroach on the ability of two trusted advisers to deliver credible counsel to the president on core issues like trade, intellectual property, and the value of the Chinese currency.
Read more from AP here.
Published: Apr 18, 2017