Counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway urged viewers to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff” during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday morning.
The plug — which may even violate White House ethics rules — comes one day after President Trump ripped Nordstrom on Twitter for dumping his daughter’s line.
Experts have taken to Twitter to ponder if she broke ethics rules.
“This is a very successful businesswoman twice,” Conway said of Ivanka. “She helped to run her family’s real estate empire and, on the side, developed another fully unbelievably entrepreneurial, widely successful business that bears her name. I think she’s gone from 800 stores to 1,000 stores… You can certainly buy her goods online.”
Conway continued: “She is an incredibly creative, talented woman who also supports her father’s presidency… Go buy Ivanka’s stuff.”
Attorney Larry Noble tweeted, “Appears Kellayanne Conway may have just violated ban on Federal employee using public office for endorsement of product.”
Don W. Fox, former general counsel and former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, told The Washington Post that “Conway’s encouragement to buy Ivanka’s stuff would seem to be a clear violation of rules prohibiting misuse of public office for anyone’s private gain.”
He added: “This is jaw-dropping to me. This rule has been promulgated by the federal Office of Government Ethics as part of the Standards of Conduct for all executive branch employees and it applies to all members of the armed forces as well.”
On Wednesday, Trump made headlines when he bashed the department store for its treatment of his daughter.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/829356871848951809
Some economists expressed concerns that a mere 140-character post from Twitter-happy Trump can impact a publicly traded company’s stock price. Maybe so, but Nordstrom proved immune to that Thursday when its share price went up after our new Commander-in-Chief complained about the store’s decision to stop selling his daughter Ivanka’s clothing and accessory line.
Now that Trump a surrogate turned the Fox News morning show into an infomercial for the products, people are concerned once again.
"Go buy Ivanka's stuff!" Kellyanne Conway tells "Fox & Friends" viewers from the White House briefing room. pic.twitter.com/noIhnVgcAk
— Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) February 9, 2017
Appears Kellayanne Conway may have just violated ban on Federal employee using public office for endorsement of product. 5 CFR 2635.702 https://t.co/mIvngSHCnk
— Larry Noble (@LarryNoble_DC) February 9, 2017
Kellyanne on Fox—“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff…I’m gonna just going to give a free commercial here”
Here's federal ethics law many are pointing to pic.twitter.com/cAEARzsFFM
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 9, 2017
Kellyanne Conway on Fox News urged viewers to "go buy Ivanka's stuff” — potentially violating federal law: https://t.co/626kB23GwP pic.twitter.com/xkXP9DqT8u
— Media Matters (@mmfa) February 9, 2017
Kellyanne Conway: "Go buy Ivanka's stuff." May violate executive branch's ban on staff endorsing products/companies https://t.co/U4VC8HMQ3k
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) February 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/drewharwell/status/829717071051239425
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/829728547161985026
Check out the video above.