Donald Trump recently conceded that he considered one of his adult daughters, White House aide Ivanka Trump, to lead the World Bank. In fact, the president told The Atlantic that he also saw her as a possible ambassador to the United Nations, but also thought she’d be a good fit at the World Bank because, as he put it, “she’s very good with numbers.”
It now appears the president did more than just contemplate this possibility.
White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump says her father asked her if she was interested in taking the job of World Bank chief but she passed on it.
In an Associated Press interview, President Donald Trump’s daughter said Wednesday she was happy with her current role in the administration. She spoke during a trip to Africa to promote a global women’s initiative.
Ivanka Trump says her father raised the job with her as “a question” and she told him she was “happy with the work” she’s doing…. Asked if her father had approached her about other top jobs, Ivanka Trump said she’d “keep that between” them.
There’s still some question as to the exact nature of the discussion. There’s a qualitative difference between a president asking, “Is this a position you might be interested in?” and a president saying, “I’m offering you this job.”
But in either case, we’re looking at a very strange dynamic.
As we discussed last week, it was shortly after the 2016 elections when Ivanka Trump said she would not take on a role in her father’s administration.
As regular readers know, it was a commitment she quickly abandoned. Ivanka Trump soon had a West Wing office, a staff, a policy portfolio, and a presence on the international stage.
We now also know, because her father admitted it on the record, that the president also had a conversation with her about possibly leading the World Bank — despite having none of the necessary qualifications or background — but she passed on the opportunity.
Imagine for a moment what Republicans would be saying if 80,000 votes in the Rust Belt went the other way and President Hillary Clinton were offering all of these opportunities to Chelsea Clinton.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."