White House counselor Kellyanne Conway urged people to buy Ivanka Trump’s clothing line during an interview Thursday morning, a comment that could be a violation of federal ethics law.
Conway said on Fox News that Nordstrom’s decision to stop selling Ivanka Trump’s clothing line was not based on business decisions, as the company said, but instead to hurt President Trump. She hit out at boycotts of Trump products as misguided, but then endorsed Ivanka Trump’s clothing line.
Here is @KellyannePolls, the counselor to @POTUS, telling people to buy the president's daughter's merchandise. "Go buy Ivanka's stuff." pic.twitter.com/MP1gHRHs6W— Tom Namako (@TomNamako) February 9, 2017
“They’re using her, who’s been a champion for women empowerment and women in the workplace, to get to him, so I think people can see through that,” Conway said.
“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would tell you. I hate shopping, but I’m going to go get some myself today.”
According to the Office of Government Ethics, executive branch employees ” may not use their government positions to suggest that the agency or any part of the executive branch endorses organizations (including nonprofit organizations), products or people.”
During the interview, Conway was speaking from the White House briefing room. She had just wrapped up speaking about the president’s continued confidence in Judge Neil Gorsuch, his pick for the Supreme Court who criticized his comments about judges in meetings with senators.
The response from the White House to Nordstrom’s decision to stop selling Ivanka Trump’s clothing line has raised ethical concerns this week.
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that the store was being “so unfair” to his daughter for not selling her clothing, and then the official @POTUS account retweeted his statement.
An expert told the Washington Examiner that Trump’s Twitter activity was likely legal, but would be an ethical headache for the administration.
