Ivanka Trump will help pick America's next World Bank nominee

Ivanka Trump and former World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, world leaders — (Image credit: Michael Kappeler/AFP/Getty Images)

Ivanka Trump, President Trump's daughter and senior White House adviser, is not a candidate to be the next president of the World Bank, but she'll "help manage the U.S. nomination process as she's worked closely with the World Bank's leadership for the past two years," a White House representative tells The Wall Street Journal. Trump will work with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to select the U.S. nominee, following the surprise resignation of Jim Yong Kim earlier this month.

The World Bank president is traditionally American while Europe picks the head of the International Monetary Fund, but this year's World Bank "selection is shaping up as a test of the Trump administration's international clout," the Journal reports. "The World Bank's board of directors has said a candidate must be committed to multilateralism, while some Trump administration officials have been critical of multilateral institutions like the World Bank, which is the leading international development finance institution." The U.S. has the largest voting share of any country, about 16 percent, but blocs like the European Union collectively have larger shares, and an America First candidate could lead to the first-ever non-U.S. World Bank president.

Ivanka Trump has worked with the World Bank since early in her father's administration, proposing a women's entrepreneurship fund to Kim in April 2017. Kim launched that initiative in October 2017, and while Trump "has no formal governance role" in the fund, the Journal says, her involvement in its genesis and funding has put her "in close contact with development finance officials who oversee their countries' participation in the bank."

Article continues below

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.