Here are some photos of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner out and about in Aspen. While Ivanka and her brothers flew to Aspen last weekend, Jared waited a few days before joining Ivanka and their kids. Meaning… Jared has been MIA in Washington this week. I was going to say “that’s probably why Bigly Boy has been having such a rough week,” but honestly, I don’t think Kushner’s presence makes that big of a difference. Bigly Boy’s chaos cannot be controlled, not even by his favorite child and her husband. Speaking of chaos, people are still freaking out about Ivanka’s new West Wing role. She’s not technically an employee and she’s not being paid… so it’s an ethical quagmire.

President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump will have a security clearance, a West Wing office and the ear of her father on important policy matters. But don’t call her an employee. When it comes to government work, “employee” is more than just a word. That designation triggers an array of transparency and ethical provisions, including a law prohibiting conflicts of interest. Government watchdogs are concerned that by refusing to call Ivanka Trump an employee, White House counsel Don McGahn could be attempting to give her a loophole if she improperly mingles her government policy roles with her business and financial interests.

In a letter Friday to McGahn, they ask him to reconsider, saying the position as designed “creates a middle space that does not exist.” It is signed by two former White House lawyers and three other transparency and ethics advocates, all of whom have been highly critical of the Trump administration’s approach to ethics.

“On the one hand, her position will provide her with the privileges and opportunities for service that attach to being a White House employee,” they write. “On the other hand, she remains the owner of a private business who is free from the ethics and conflicts rules that apply to all White House employees.”

The White House rejects that notion. As an adult first daughter with an interest in politics and a clothing and lifestyle brand of her own, Ivanka Trump is in an unprecedented situation. There’s no protocol for this, said a senior White House official who requested anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. She’s family, not an employee. Another person close to Ivanka Trump earlier told The Associated Press that Ivanka believes she can offer more independent perspective to her father by not serving as a White House staffer.

Richard Painter, one of the letter’s signatories and President George W. Bush’s chief ethics counselor, said he cannot recall a White House that had such high-powered “non-employees.”

Ivanka Trump is choosing to be in a less formal role than her husband, Jared Kushner, who is a senior adviser to the president and, as an employee, must follow the rules. She has relinquished control of her brand but, like her father, continues to own and financially benefit from her businesses. She will “voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not,” her attorney Jamie Gorelick said this week.

[From The Associated Press via ABC News]

The thing that gets me is Ivanka’s insistence that she “believes she can offer more independent perspective to her father by not serving as a White House staffer.” Like, in what world is that a reasonable argument? Any president can have informal advisers, or friends or even family members outside of the government apparatus, in what is commonly known as a “Kitchen Cabinet.” If Ivanka wants to be her father’s informal adviser, sounding board and champion, sure, that’s fine and there’s nothing that can be done about. But don’t take a West Wing office. Don’t get a government-issued phone and don’t get a security clearance. Those are the privileges of an employee. This is such a f–king mess.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.