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Ivanka Trump has announced that she is closing her namesake clothing label, after deciding to pursue a career in public policy. The label had recently been operating with limitations, according to CNN, to reduce potential ethics violations, and the perception that Ivanka is profiting off her White House role and her relationship with her father, President Trump.
The closing down of the clothing label has led many to question the status of Ivanka’s net worth, and how much the label will affect it. According to Time, Ivanka has an estimated net worth of $300 million. Read on to learn how she made her fortune, both as an individual and with her husband Jared Kushner.
1. She Does Not Technically Earn a Salary as White House Advisor
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Ivanka currently works as an advisor to her father at the White House, where she does not technically earn a salary. NBC News reports that she was among the members of the Presiden’t staff who chose to forego a salary and work for free. That said, she has continued to be paid by the Trump Organization, with an estimated annual paycheck of $1.5 million.
According to McClatchy, her annual payment is broken up into three lump sums: she receives $800,000 from TTT Consulting, $600,000 from TTTT Venture and another $100,000 from T International Reality, all of which are companies that are linked to the Trump Organization. The payments list Ivanka’s services as “consulting, licensing, and management of real estate properties.”
Ivanka has also received payment from international companies during her White House tenure, including a construction company owned by the Chinese government that was awarded a contract to build a road in Dubai, a construction company owned by the governments of Saudi Arabia and South Korea, and the Bali government. The specific amounts that she was paid for each project is unknown, according to McClatchy.
2. She’s Earned Over $12 Million Since Joining Her Father’s Staff
Ivanka has been criticized for not severing ties with her businesses, and creating possible conflicts of interests in the White House. According to a financial disclosure report filed in 2017, Ivanka resigned from her numerous vice president positions with the Trump Organizations, but planned to continue to receive money from its businesses. Since then, The New York Times reports that she’s earned over $12.5 million.
Ivanka and her legal team have denied any conflicts of interests. Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for the attorney hired by Ivanka and Kushner, told McClatchy: “The suggestion that Ms. Trump’s ‘continued relationship’ with the Trump family businesses creates prohibited conflicts of interests is completely false.”
He continues, saying: “She has had no decision-making role in the family businesses since she resigned from all of her positions in those companies more than a year ago and has entered into an ethics agreement with the White House in which she will recuse herself from participating in any decision-making that could pose a conflict of interest with her family business. Any suggestion to the contrary is both false and a result of intentionally ignoring the basic facts of her situation.”
“When Ms. Trump became a federal employee, she transitioned from being an active investor and manager to being merely a passive investor,” he added. “She did this as a result of ethics advice she received, and has followed that advice.”
3. She Made an Estimated $3.9 Million from Her Father’s Hotels In 2017
Ivanka made an estimated $3.9 million from her stake in the Trump International Hotel in D.C. She also retains an interest in Ivanka Opo Hotel Manager LLC, which has reportedly become a popular meeting place for Republican and conservative groups. According to McClatchy, however, it was not indicated how much she will receive from the Ivanka Opo Hotel. In addition to the hotels, Ivanka earned $50,000 for helping oversee a trust belonging to the children of Rupert Murdoch and his former wife Wendi Deng.
“She no longer provides any services to those companies, and she no longer receives any earned income or compensation from them,” said Mirijanian. “Based on her prior financial investment in those companies, she now receives fixed income based on her passive investment in those companies, something not uncommon for federal employees with outside investments.”
4. She & Kusher Were Sued Over Financial Disclosures In 2017
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Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner were hit with a 2017 lawsuit that claimed they made illegal omissions on their financial disclosure forms. Washington lawyer Jeffrey Lovitky told Politico that the couple failed to identify the assets owned by nearly 30 investment funds that they had stakes in, and that they didn’t declared the income they derived from two investment vehicles. The couple were also fined for filing their disclosure forms late.
“The [Ethics in Government Act] does not allow a reporting individual to refuse to disclose the underlying assets of an investment vehicle, on the basis that such disclosure would violate a pre-existing confidentiality agreement,” lawsuit states. “Nor does the EIGA allow a reporting individual to refuse to disclose the amount of income derived from any underlying asset of an investment vehicle.”
The disclosure forms revealed that the couple were also in credit card debt. According to Salon, the couple have a shared debt of $31 to $155 million. Ivanka alone has an outstanding credit card balance of between $100,00 and $250,000, which she has since been able to lower to the $50,000-$100,000 range.
5. Her Clothing Brand Sales Had Been Declining Since Her Father’s Election
Ivanka’s clothing brand had a banner year in 2016, as sales rose 61% and it took in a respectable $47.3 million. The brand gained another spike in sales following her father’s election, as it jumped up 700% from February 2017 to February of the previous year. Ivanka made over $5 million from the brand during this period. In the months following Trump’s election, however, sales for the clothing brand begin to decline.
According to Lyst, order growth dropped to 288 percent in March, then to 114 percent in May, and then again to 6 percent in July. By August 2017, order volume was down negative one percent compared to August of the previous year.
Nordstrom, who had partnered with Ivanka’s company during its 2014 launch, cited “brand performance” as the reason it broke away in February 2017. “Views on the brand have become highly polarized, and it has become a lightning rod for protests and boycotts,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. “Doing business has become far more challenging and these problems will only increase.”
Page Six reports that employees have already been informed that they are laid off, and. “I know that this was a very difficult decision for Ivanka and I am very grateful for the opportunity to have led such a talented and committed team,” said company president Abigail Klem. “When faced with the most unique circumstances, the team displayed strength and optimism.”