Who Blocked Trump From Almost Nominating Daughter Ivanka Trump As World Bank Chief?

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reportedly stonewalled Ivanka Trump’s appointment to head the World Bank . A report about the opening for the position came about in January 2019 when Jim Yong Kim resigned and Donald Trump had been reportedly toying with the idea of placing his daughter at the helm of the international financial institution.

According to The Intercept, the former US president was strongly intent at nominating his daughter, but it took a direct intervention from his own treasury secretary to talk him out of the decision. Trump told the Atlantic: “I even thought of Ivanka for the World Bank … she would’ve been great at that because she’s very good with numbers.”

Ivanka Trump told the media at the time, that her father had indeed offered her the job but she turned it down. She explained her decision saying that she was happy working as a senior White House adviser.

The report stated that Mnuchin usually would put himself between Trump and any counterproductive moves the treasury secretary deemed would be bad decisions with colossal consequences on Trump’s part. This earned him a rare feat of retaining his position with the former president during his entire 4-year term in office compared to reputed tenures of other cabinet appointees and advisers

Despite being a Goldman Sachs banker, Mnuchin was said to have gained the kind of influence on Trump on the fact that he was a Hollywood film producer. The report said this made him a representation of the set of people Trump had always craved approval from, of which others in his administration fell short of.

The head of the World Bank is generally chosen by the US, which according to the director of the US development policy program Scott Morris, has had a growing number of countries expressing they are not happy at how the US always gets to pick the World Bank president. “For them to hear how close it was to being the US president’s daughter probably adds fuel to the fire that the Americans are so cavalier about this,” Morris added.

Ivanka did, however, have a hand during the selection process along with Mnuchin and the White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Upon the announcement of the Treasury Department on the appointment of Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs David Malpass as the World Bank’s new president, Ivanka also released a statement where she lauded Malpass and said he would be an extraordinary leader of the financial institution.