One of the recurring story lines of the Trump era: Things are going off the rails, but never fear -- first daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump is quietly working behind the scenes to be the least-awful member of the administration, details of which are conveniently leaked to the press:
February 2017: The New York Times reports that Ivanka and sidekick Jared Kushner "helped kill" an executive order rolling back LGBTQ protections.
April 2017: Politico reports that Ivanka has "quietly reached out to" Planned Parenthood as part of her "listening tour."
April 2017: Eric Trump tells the Telegraph that a "heart-broken and outraged " Ivanka pushed her father to launch missile strikes on Syria after a chemical attack.
May 2017: Ivanka, who Axios states is "passionate" about climate change, is said to be working behind the scenes to influence her father's decision to ditch the Paris climate deal.
June 2017: A US Weekly cover story trumpets that Ivanka "will always fight for what she believes in."
June 2018: CNN asserts that Ivanka "agrees with her father's sentiments that he hates the family separation issue and doesn't want it to occur" -- though she won't say anything about it publicly.
September 2018: An unnamed source tells Vanity Fair that Ivanka told her dad to pull his nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
October 2018: The New York Times reports that only after "importuning" by Ivanka and Jared did the president speak out against anti-Semitism following a mass shooting at a synagogue.
April 2019: As Trump threatens to shut down the US-Mexico border, Jared pushes for immigration policies in line with his and Ivanka's "more moderate positions," Politico reports.
July 2019: An anonymous source tells CBS News that the president "took heat" from Ivanka after he let his supporters chant "send her back" at a rally.
August 2019: As Trump dithers, Ivanka reportedly has been "quietly calling" lawmakers to gauge their support for new gun laws.
September 2019: Yahoo News reports "rumors" that Ivanka and Jared have suggested replacing Vice President Mike Pence with a woman on the 2020 ticket. (Source: Inae Oh, "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Schtick," Mother Jones, November/December 2019.)
ADDENDUMS:
*The State Department probe of Hillary Clinton's emails finds no deliberate mishandling of classified information.
*Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calls pulling troops out of northern Syria a "grave strategic mistake."
*Trump calls acting ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor a Never Trumper.
*Randall Eliason, a professor of white-collar crime at George Washington University, says a likely charge for the quid pro quo in Ukraine could be bribery: demanding something in exchange for military aid.
*Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was fined $100,000 by a magistrate judge for violating an order to stop collecting loan payments from former Corinthian College students.
* U.S. Judge Christopher R. 'Casey' Cooper of the D.C. judicial circuit said he will order the State Department to begin releasing Ukraine-related documents in 30 days. The lawsuit was filed by the watchdog group, American Oversight.
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