Exclusive — Ivanka Rocks Berlin: President Trump’s ‘Policies Are Central to the Economic Empowerment of Women’

Ivanka Trump, the first daughter and an assistant to the president, told Breitbart News exclusively that her father’s policies focused on childcare and paid maternity leave are “central to the economic empowerment of women.”

“These policies are central to the economic empowerment of women and they will ensure economic growth and job creation across the country,” Ivanka Trump told Breitbart News via email after an appearance in Berlin, Germany, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, and the Netherlands’ Queen Maxima.

“Ensuring that women enter and stay in the workforce is vital as well as breaking down the barriers for female small business owners so they can become job creators,” Ivanka Trump continued.

“It was such an honor to be invited by Chancellor Merkel to participate in today’s panel to discuss these topics and many others that are crucial to stimulating the economy at home,” she added in her emailed statement to Breitbart News. “I look forward to continuing this dialogue as well as implementing concrete policies to advance these issues that will ultimately benefit all Americans.”

Ivanka Trump’s appearance at the event, the W-20 Summit in Berlin, comes as her father, United States President Donald Trump, nears the end of his first 100 days in office. The audience at the event was rough on the first daughter when she spoke favorably about her father, but she powered through to present the Trump family’s viewpoint on the world stage.

“I’m very, very proud of my father’s advocacy—long before he came to the presidency but during the campaign, including in the primaries, he’s been a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive,” she said.

She also added during the panel that her father always treated women and men equally, and that “there was no difference” between the way he treated her and the way he treated her brothers Donald, Jr., and Eric.

“As a daughter, I can speak on a very personal level,” she added. “I grew up in a house where there was no barrier to what I could accomplish beyond my own perseverance and tenacity. That’s not an easy thing to do; he provided that for us.”

And she praised her father for empowering women in his administration.

“The team basically going through the vetting and hiring process — six out of eight of those people are women,” Ivanka Trump said.

During the campaign, in Pennsylvania, Ivanka appeared alongside her father to roll out the now-president’s childcare and maternity leave policy platforms.

Ivanka Trump told Breitbart News at the event in Aston, Pennsylvania, in September 2016, in an exclusive interview:

One of the major elements is allowing for the cost of child care to be tax deductible for up to four children, and it’s based on the average cost of child care in that person’s state. If you don’t pay taxes, then there’s an expansion of the existing Earned Income Tax Credit—so you get an additional refund for that. This is not only for child care but also for dependent care. Women are predominantly caregivers so that’s why this is most beneficial for women, but it’s also about helping American families.

She also said there would be the creation of Dependent Care Savings Accounts to help with childcare:

Secondly, there is the creation of a Dependent Care Savings Account (DCSA)—which is effectively like a Healthcare Savings Account (HSA)—to allow people to save pre-tax dollars, make contributions, and if you’re a low income person the government will actually match up to 50 percent of the first $1,000 contributed with a cap of $2,000 per year. It rolls over, it can be used for school choice, and it’s sort of an expansion of the school choice program in that this money can be used towards that, it can be used for adult daycare if you’re caring for an adult dependent, or for after-school enrichment activities so it’s a great way to incentivize people to save.

All of this and more, she added then in that September 2016 interview with Breitbart News, was part of a “fresh perspective” a Trump presidency would bring to the table.

“One of the great promises of a Trump presidency is bringing new solutions, fresh perspective to the table in a way that, unfortunately, we haven’t had the benefit of for a very long time,” she said. “I think this is one more example of that.”