According to a source close to Ivanka, climate change is an area of utmost importance to her and she will use her influence as first daughter to push its agenda.
Via POLITICO:
And the ambitious daughter, who once plotted her career around international brand domination, is planning to take on an even heavier lift. Ivanka wants to make climate change — which her father has called a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese — one of her signature issues, a source close to her told Politico. The source said Ivanka is in the early stages of exploring how to use her spotlight to speak out on the issue.
If true, it would not be the first time Ivanka has successfully transmitted a personal (and progressive) belief into her father’s political platform. In the heat of the presidential campaign in September, Donald Trump laid out his agenda on child care by calling for six weeks of paid maternity leave – an idea pushed by his daughter. Earlier in July, Ivanka was already calling for parental leave and pay equality at the Republican National Convention.
Ivanka, along with her siblings, was notably unable to vote for her father during the New York Republican primary after missing the registration deadline. She was not a registered Republican.
Is Ivanka Trump a closet liberal? Highly unlikely. She has been an unabashed spokeswoman for her father’s campaign since the beginning. She has taken a beating from the liberal elite for her campaign surrogacy. You could also argue her calls for parental leave coincide with her father’s theme of justice for the working class.
In fact, her influence over Donald Trump is looked at something quite historic.
While Melania Trump has been quite shy of the public spotlight – she has made no public appearances since Election Day besides a family interview on 60 Minutes – Ivanka has been traversing the political circuits. Over the course of the 2016 election, she had starred in campaign ads and made numerous public appearances for the Republican presidential ticket.
She made headlines when she sat in on Trump’s face-to-face meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in November – mainly because it called into question conflicts of interest, but also because it showcased Ivanka’s clout.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi gave president-elect Trump a call following Election Day. They spoke about a host of political topics. However, when the subject of women's issues came up, Trump did something quite unorthodox - he handed the phone over to his daughter.
Ivanka is already poised to play a bigger role in Trump’s White House than Melania - the incoming first lady. Many experts are suggesting Ivanka Trump may be the most influential first daughter in American history.
Her role as first daughter will apparently be more institutionalized in the coming days. Ivanka is currently searching for a chief of staff and several more employees to form her operation. She will undoubtedly need help as she begins to juggle her role as first daughter while taking in more responsibilities from her father's real estate empire as he walks away to commit to the White House.
While successful in lobbying the president-elect to adopt maternity leave and pay equality – climate change is a whole different ball game. Trump has questioned the validity of climate change science and ran his campaign as the coal mining industry’s hero against a Democrat who publicly called for putting coal miners out of work. The champion of the working class is doubtfully going to adopt progressive stances that would endanger their jobs.
It’s hard to imagine anyone (including his eldest daughter) converting Trump into an advocate for the environment under such circumstances.
How exactly she will be using her unprecedented influence is yet to be discerned, but one thing is certain.
Ivanka clearly has the 45th president’s ear.