Administration

White House defends giving Ivanka Trump West Wing office

White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Wednesday defended the decision to give Ivanka Trump an office in the West Wing, saying that the first daughter is going “above and beyond” to comply with ethics standards.

“Ivanka has decided to go above and beyond and act in certain ways to ensure she complies with certain rules, by maintaining the federal records act, getting a security clearance so that if she’s privy to any information that is classified, she has to abide by the same rules and regulations about being in room, how it’s handled, et cetera,” Spicer said during his daily briefing.

He also defended a tweet then-President-elect Trump sent out in November, denying reports his children would be getting security clearances. Ivanka Trump has since applied for one.

{mosads}“At the time it was not true, I mean, she wasn’t obtaining a security clearance,” Spicer said. “It was not accurate then. We addressed it during the transition. An official had actually just inquired, there was no actual attempt at the time. The official in question was removed from the transition team.”

“No paperwork was ever drawn, no account was ever opened,” he added.
 
Trump’s eldest daughter is considered a close confidante of the president and is said to have considerable influence over her father. She and her husband, senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner, moved to Washington in January, when Trump took office.
 
While Ivanka Trump isn’t being given an official position in the Trump administration or any kind of salary, the decision to grant her an office on the second floor of the West Wing — next to the office of senior adviser Dina Powell — signals her high status within her father’s White House.
 
In her new office, she will act as her father’s “eyes and ears” and will provide advice to the president on a sweeping array of topics, her attorney told Politico.