Liberal Forum

Ivanka Trump Takes Spotlight at Davos, Ahead of Cabinet Members

If the World Economic Forum gave President Trump a break from his political and legal troubles at home, for his elder daughter it presented another opportunity to stride across the world stage.

Ivanka Trump, a White House adviser, was presented at this conference of global elites as a principal second only to her father, even as she traveled as part of a delegation that included all of the president’s most important economic advisers.

She shared top billing with Mr. Trump Wednesday morning at a breakfast for corporate executives, including the chief executive of Apple, Tim Cook, which she co-hosted with the president and helped organize.

There, she took precedence over four cabinet members and the president’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, who were also in attendance.

She also organized Mr. Trump’s dinner meeting Tuesday night with global chief executives and participated in a bilateral meeting with the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan.

She sat for an interview with the Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo and was the sole adviser Mr. Trump mentioned by name during his 30-minute speech on Tuesday.

“Under Ivanka’s leadership, our Pledge to America’s Workers has become a full-blown national movement,” Mr. Trump said, referring to an effort to get employers to expand worker retraining.

It was a ringing endorsement in front of a moneyed crowd for a program — a set of pledges that so far are more promised than realized — that Ms. Trump has been championing for the past year in lower-profile appearances across the country.

After a difficult first year in Washington, during which Ms. Trump struggled to find her lane, the challenges faced by the American worker have given her what she describes as a passion project.

Davos was just the latest international gathering in which the president’s daughter has taken a major role.

And foreign government and business leaders who were once skeptical of her presence — like her father, she had no background in government — have recognized the amorphous power held by Mr. Trump’s family-members-turned-official-advisers.