A Top Trump Advisor Is In Trouble For Plugging Ivanka’s Fashion Label On TV

It seems that the Ivanka Trump / Nordstrom saga still has a little bit of juice left in it. After Trump raised eyebrows by raging at the department store chain for dropping Ivanka’s brand, basically everyone was a little concerned about the implications of a sitting president using his position to enrich a family member. But hey!

Looks like Team Trump has decided the best way to address this extremely plain conflict of interest is to send one of its top surrogates out to… tell people to buy Ivanka’s stuff.
Kellyanne Conway, the Republican pollster who helped Trump’s ascent to the throne, just might have broken federal ethics regulations when she appeared on Fox & Friends and told the audience to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff”.

Of course, the response to this was fairly immediate. People immediately began pointing out exactly what federal ethics violations had just transpired. People also point out that regardless of federal law, this is a prime example of NOT HELPING THE SITUATION AT ALL, KELLYANNE.

Don W. Fox, former general counsel and former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, told The Washington Post that “Conway’s encouragement to buy Ivanka’s stuff would seem to be a clear violation of rules prohibiting misuse of public office for anyone’s private gain.”

He continued:
This is jaw-dropping to me. This rule has been promulgated by the federal Office of Government Ethics as part of the Standards of Conduct for all executive branch employees and it applies to all members of the armed forces as well.
During Sean Spicer‘s standard White House press briefing, he was asked about Conway’s blunder, to which he said that she was being counselled over the issue. No further info was provided.

We’re not even a month into this shit. I imagine it will not get much better.
Photo: Getty Images.

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