President Trump says he considered his daughter Ivanka Trump to lead the World Bank, saying “she’s very good with numbers,” though he ultimately went with another nominee.
“I even thought of Ivanka for the World Bank … She would’ve been great at that because she’s very good with numbers,” Trump said in an interview with the Atlantic released Friday. In the interview, the president discussed Ivanka Trump’s role in the White House as a senior adviser and spoke about what her next steps may be beyond the Trump administration.
The World Bank presidency has been vacant since February after American physician Jim Young Kim, an Obama appointee, announced in January that he leave the post after seven years at the organization’s helm.
The board of executives governing the World Bank Organization, which represents the 189 member nations, must approve the final decision in choosing the new president, though generally the board accepts the nomination put in place by the U.S. president.
“She’s got a great calmness … I’ve seen her under tremendous stress and pressure,” President Trump added. “She reacts very well — that’s usually a genetic thing, but it’s one of those things, nevertheless.”
Trump nominated longtime Treasury and state official David Malpass to lead the World Bank instead.
In the interview, the president also said that his daughter “would’ve been great at the United Nations,” referencing the the vacancy that resulted from Nikki Haley’s resignation last year. He argued that critics would incessantly call the move an example of nepotism and that the controversy would cause a distraction from her ability to do the job.
[Related: Ivanka Trump helping to pick US nominee for World Bank president]
However, the president insisted that his consideration of Ivanka Trump for the job was not nepotism, but rather his confidence in her to succeed in the role. “It would’ve had nothing to do with nepotism. But she would’ve been incredible,” he said.
While speculation grew over President Trump choosing his daughter to lead the U.S. mission to the United Nations, Ivanka Trump withdrew her name from any consideration via Twitter within days after Haley’s resignation.
“It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me,” Ivanka Trump wrote in October.
Trump announced this year his nomination of Kelly Craft, who served as U.S. ambassador to Canada and a favorite of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to serve as U.N. ambassador.
