In 2019, former President Donald Trump made a boastful claim about his daughter and former senior adviser Ivanka Trump, stating that she had created “millions of jobs” while addressing the US governors. However, Trump did not provide any specifics or data to support this assertion.
During a speech at the bipartisan National Governor’s Association at the White House, Trump declared, “My daughter has created millions of jobs. I don’t know if anyone knows that, but she’s created millions of jobs.” Ivanka, who began her role in the Oval Office in 2017, had decided to step away from her political career by this time.
Despite the lack of concrete evidence, Trump continued to emphasize Ivanka’s contributions. He highlighted the creation of the National Council for the American Worker in 2018, which Ivanka co-chaired with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The council aimed to encourage companies to generate more employment opportunities across all age groups.
According to the White House, the council was committed to expanding programs that educate, train, and reskill American workers from high school age to near retirement. Trump further claimed that his administration had secured commitments from private sector leaders to hire and train more than 6.5 million Americans, as per The Guardian.
He added, “Think of it: 6.5 million. And these are jobs that, for the most part, would not have happened.” Ivanka herself echoed these sentiments on social media, stating that historically low unemployment rates had created opportunities for millions of Americans. She noted that a record 73% of previously unemployed individuals had joined the workforce in the fourth quarter of 2018, marking the highest share of people entering the labor force from the sidelines ever.
However, CNN’s Senior Economics Writer Lydia DePillis scrutinized these claims and found them to be exaggerated. The council’s stated goals were more about committing to new opportunities over the next five years rather than specific job creation targets. Additionally, the focus was on training programs to enhance skills rather than directly creating jobs. DePillis also pointed out that many companies, such as Walmart and the Associated Builders and Contractors, had already planned training programs before Ivanka’s involvement.
In November 2019, Trump repeated the claim at the Economic Club of New York, stating that Ivanka was responsible for creating 14 million jobs. He said, “When she started this two and a half years ago, her goal was 500,000 jobs. She’s now created 14 million jobs.”
When pressed for evidence to support these claims, a White House spokesperson blamed the media for “misconstruing the President’s words.” This response did little to clarify the discrepancies between the claims and the available data, leaving the exact impact of Ivanka Trump’s initiatives open to interpretation.