President Trump made a sweeping promise on Inauguration Day: “We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American.”
Apparently, his daughter Ivanka didn’t get the memo.
Ivanka’s eponymous clothing line has taken in scores of shipments of Trump-branded shoes, bags and blouses from China since her father became President, according to an AFP report.
The “Made in China” merchandise included more than two tons of polyester woven blouses, 1,600 cowhide leather wallets and 23 tons of footwear.
The goods were contained in 82 shipments that passed through U.S. Customs between Nov. 8, 2016 — the day Donald Trump won the presidency — and Feb. 26, 2017. The President has frequently accused China of using unfair trade practices to steal American jobs. He has vowed to punish foreign and domestic companies that manufacture goods abroad with hefty tariffs.
Last month, Ivanka sat in on a White House business council meeting where her father discussed “tough policies” to bring “our jobs back.”
Two days later, more than 5,000 Ivanka Trump polyester blouses arrived in Newark, N.J.
Trump has said nothing about his daughter and her partners when they made their products abroad.
But he lashed out at Nordstrom last month after it announced it would stop carrying Ivanka’s fashion line because of poor sales.
“My daughter has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom,” he tweeted.
That was followed by a controversial pitch from senior counsellor Kellyanne Conway, telling “Fox & Friends” viewers on Feb. 9 to go out and by Ivanka’s goods during a television interview.
“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would tell you,” Conway said. “I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody.”
Abigail Klem, president of the Ivanka Trump brand, told the Washington Post the first few weeks of February were “the best performing weeks in the history of the brand.”
