The president’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump and her husband and fellow presidential adviser Jared Kushner apparently don’t take the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic seriously enough to actually follow the social distancing guidelines that President Donald Trump’s own administration has put in place. According to a report in The New York Times, Ivanka and Jared recently traveled to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for a ceremony marking the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover, despite admonishment against nonessential travel and the teleconferncing that many around the country did to celebrate Passover without ignoring the guidance.
As The Times reports:
‘Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s eldest daughter and a senior White House adviser, has positioned herself as one of the leaders of the administration’s economic relief efforts and one of its most vocal advocates of social distancing… But Ms. Trump herself has not followed the federal guidelines advising against discretionary travel, leaving Washington for another one of her family’s homes, even as she has publicly thanked people for self-quarantining.’
Besides the federal guidelines against nonessential travel, the city of Washington, D.C., has itself issued a stay-at-home order for its residents, The Times notes. Across the country, individuals have repeatedly been arrested and/or fined for violations of similar orders — but that does not appear to have stopped Ivanka and Jared.
Kushner has returned to ordinary work at the White House, while Ivanka and the couple’s children reportedly stayed behind at the Bedminster golf club, where Ivanka has been working remotely. On Wednesday, Ivanka “participated remotely in at least two of the president’s calls with business leaders he is consulting with as he seeks to reopen the country’s economy, according to someone familiar with the calls,” according to The Times.
This situation is not the first episode of this crisis in which Ivanka has ended up working remotely. She also stayed away from the White House for awhile after interacting with an Australian official who eventually tested positive for the Coronavirus. She herself eventually got tested, and the test came back negative. Her father, the president, has apparently gotten tested for the Coronavirus at least twice after similarly precarious interactions, and the tests have come back negative both times.
Ivanka and Jared are both part of the president’s task force on reopening the economy after the Coronavirus-induced social distancing measures, which have led to staggering developments like the loss within just a few weeks of almost as many jobs as had previously been gained in the entire time since the Great Recession around 2008. Not all of those jobs will return, especially not at the drop of a hat or flip of a switch. The Trumps have been clamoring to get the economy moving again, but if things are prematurely reopened, then additional carnage could ensue because the virus is allowed to spread unchecked. Groups of states around the country including on both the East and West coasts have formed pacts to jointly develop their own reopening plans, distinct from whatever the president will try and sling out.
