Kellyanne Conway’s Ethics Violation
By advertising Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, she violated an ethics rule
By Himaja Vendidandi
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
To describe Kellyanne Conway as one who is controversial would be a great understatement. She has been defending Donald Trump and his family. However, to go on national television and promote Ivanka’s clothing line as a White House employee is beyond out of the ordinary, it’s frankly unethical.
“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff, is what I was [saying] — I hate shopping and I’m going to go get some myself today,” Conway said in an interview on Fox & Friends.
“This is just [a] wonderful line,” she added. “I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.”
These statements she made immediately drew harsh criticism by many, including Republican Jason Chaffetz. “That is absolutely wrong, wrong, wrong. It is over the top,” Chaffetz told reporters later that day.
Now, whether or not she would get punished in any form is questionable. Democrat Elijah Cummings had sent in a request to determine if Conway should be facing any disciplinary actions or not.
U.S. Office of Government Ethics wrote back stating, “Conway’s statements clearly violate the ethical principles for federal employees and are unacceptable,” the letter said.
“In this case, there is an additional challenge, which is that the President, as the ultimate disciplinary authority for White House employees, has an inherent conflict of interest since Conway’s statements relate to his daughter’s private business,” it said.
Later that week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer explained that Conway had been “counseled” over her remarks. However, when interviewed by Fox, Conway had nothing to say about her counseling session that she had received.
Many retail stores including, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Nordstrom have had a declining interest in selling Ivanka’s clothing line. Nordstrom has stated that it would no longer sell Ivanka Trump jewelry and clothing because sales have been disappointing. T.J Maxx and Marshalls have informed their employees to mix in Ivanka’s line with products from other brand in order to try to increase sale.
After Nordstrom had announced their actions towards Ivanka’s clothing line, Trump wasted no time and tweeted that his daughter had been “treated so unfairly.” What he seems to lack is the understanding that people are still people — they won’t buy what they don’t want to. Being the President of one of the most powerful nations in the world does not give one power to dictate how the American people live on a day-to-day basis. Yes, it is true that as a public figure, one’s businesses do increase in the number of people that are aware and watching the way the business functions but that could either bring revenue in or greatly hurt the business as a whole.
When President Trump goes out of his way to blame the American people for what they are doing to his daughters businesses, there will not be a overwhelming amount of people that feel sympathy towards his family.
At this point in time, it is understood that Trump and his administration clearly have conflicts of interests and will try to use their status to try to promote their personal interests.
Kellyanne Conaway plays a significant role in how Trump and his family are represented and people are just starting to see how big of an effect it will have on Americans.
