Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka to get West Wing office

Ivanka Trump attends joint discussion along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) with business representatives at the White House in Washington. PHOTO: EPA

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, is getting an office in the White House West Wing, stepping up her highly visible role in helping advise her father.

A White House official on Monday (March 21) confirmed reports that Trump's 35-year-old daughter would be getting her own West Wing space, as well as access to classified information and a government-issued phone.

She is not expected to have an official title and will not be paid a salary.

Ivanka Trump will be joining her husband, Jared Kushner, who is a chief adviser to the president and is a regular presence at his father-in-law's side.

When Kushner's job was announced earlier this year, aides said Ivanka would not take on a role in her father's White House but would focus on settling her family in Washington. Since then, she has been a frequent behind-the-scenes adviser.

Last Friday, she sat next to visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel when the latter visited the White House.

Ivanka Trump's role, according to her attorney Jamie Gorelick, will be to serve as the president's "eyes and ears" while providing broad-ranging advice, not just limited to women's empowerment issues, the Politico website reported.

But ethics watchdogs questioned whether she is going far enough to eliminate conflicts of interest, especially because she will not be automatically subjected to certain ethics rules while serving as a de facto White House adviser, it said.

The website quoted a spokesman for Ivanka Trump as saying her role was signed off by the White House counsel's office, and the conflict issues were "worked through" with the office of government ethics.

Politico also quoted people who are close to the president's daughter as saying she sees nothing unusual about the arrangement.

It is simply how she has worked with her father for years - as a senior member of Trump Organisation and as Trump's partner on "The Apprentice," the sources said.

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