VIDEO: Ivanka Trump’s Daughter Sings in Mandarin for President Xi JinpingÂ
The Trump campaign, the Trump transition team, and the Trump White House have all at various times insisted that Donald Trump and his family have given up so much in a selfless act of public service. Just a few weeks before the election Donald Trump Jr. said serving as president would actually be “a step down” for his father.
Of course, none of that is true. The Trump family have not separated themselves from their businesses in any meaningful way, and they continue to enrich themselves and their businesses merely by virtue of the fact that their holdings are perfectly placed to increase in value because Trump is president.
But there’s far more.
In an exposé published Tuesday, the AP reports that the Chinese government granted Ivanka Trump‘s company three valuable provisional trademarks the very same day she and her father and their families dined with the President of China, Xi Jinping, earlier this month at the Trump Florida estate and golf club, Mar-a-Lago.
The trademarks, the AP reports, give Ivanka Trump’s company “monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world’s second-largest economy.”
It’s not like Ivanka has attempted to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
“In addition to winning the approvals from China, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC applied for at least nine new trademarks in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. after the election,” according to the AP.
Today, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC has 16 registered trademarks in China and 32 pending applications, along with a total of four marks granted preliminary approval since the inauguration, according to China’s Trademark Office. Altogether, they cover a wide range of goods and services, including cosmetics, jewelry, leather handbags, luggage, clothes, shoes, retail, spa and beauty services.
Globally, the company has more than 180 pending and registered trademarks in countries including Canada, India, Japan, Israel, Mexico, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, as well as the U.S. and Europe, public records show. In December, the company applied for five trademarks, covering handbags and wallets in Puerto Rico, and lingerie and other clothes in the U.S. After the inauguration, the company filed four more applications, for branded clothing and shoes in the Philippines, and perfume and other items in Canada.
And while Ivanka might argue that entertaining a visiting foreign head of state is just part of her White House job as Assistant to the President, there’s no question that the intersection of politics and business is a boon for her brand.
“Publicly, Ivanka has taken a gracious, charming approach toward Beijing,” says the AP. “During the Mar-a-Lago meetings, her daughter, 5-year-old Arabella stood in a gilded room and sang a traditional Chinese song, in Mandarin, for China’s president, Xi Jinping.”
NCRM located the video (above), on Ivanka Trump’s Instagram account.
“The video, which was lavishly praised by Chinese state media, played over 2.2 million times on China’s popular news portal qq.com.”
And business is good. Very good.
The week of the summit, 3.4 tons of Ivanka Trump handbags, wallets and blouses arrived in the U.S. from Hong Kong and Shanghai. U.S. imports of her merchandise grew an estimated 40 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Panjiva Inc., which maintains and analyzes global shipping records.
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U.S. imports, almost all of them from China, shot up an estimated 166 percent last year, while sales hit record levels in 2017. The brand, which Trump still owns, says distribution is growing. It has launched new activewear and affordable jewelry lines and is working to expand its global intellectual property footprint.
“You can’t separate Ivanka from her role in life and from her business,” Allen Adamson, founder of BrandSimpleConsulting, tells the AP. “Her celebrity status is now not only being fueled by her wealth and her family connection, but by her huge role in the White House. All that buzz is hardwired to her products.”
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Image: Screenshot via Ivanka Trump/InstagramÂ