Coronavirus Recovery: Ivanka Trump Takes Charge Of Key Effort To Help Small Businesses Back On Feet

Ivanka Trump’s focus on prioritizing Trump administration’s efforts to bolster small businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic is cheering up the recovery scene. Apart from posting refreshing social media posts including videos and selfies to keep Americans in good spirits, the First Daughter has also been involved in encouraging lenders to extend a helping hand to small businesses, reports showed.

Apart from her role as the principal adviser to her father President Donald Trump, Ivanka’s West Wing portfolio included small business, entrepreneurship, workforce development and women’s economic empowerment.

Ivanka’s role in rustling up lending support for the small businesses facing dire financial situations due to the economy’s near-shutdown is being keenly watched.

The Trump administration’s Paycheck Protection Program that rolled out last week with a massive $349 billion kitty has a major focus on Small Business Administration. The White House also sought another $251 billion for further recovery funds and is working with the Congress to pass it by the end of the week, the CNN reported.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., are in talks to avoid a nasty Senate floor fight that could leave a critical small-business loan program short on funds.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., plans to ask for unanimous consent to approve an additional $250 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program. But Democrats are increasing pressure on the administration and GOP lawmakers for several concessions, a report in The Hill said.

The Democrats, including Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., want special provisions to route money to businesses owned by women, minorities, and veterans in underserved communities.

Financial institutions approached

Their demands also include $100 billion for hospitals and healthcare centers, $150 billion for state and local governments, and a 15% funding increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that provides food stamps, the report added.

Ivanka recently participated in a teleconference call with banking executives alongside her father in the Roosevelt Room. “During recent weeks, Ivanka has been meeting on the phone with members of Congress and CEOs of the country's major financial institutions in the run-up to and the launch of the PPP. Her calls to financial institutions were to encourage them to step up and support small businesses,” the report quoted an unidentified White House official as saying.

Ivanka is reportedly pushing for $1.5 billion in private sector investments from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Visa, Mastercard, Grand Rapids State Bank, and Community Spirit Bank.

She has been splitting her time between her Washington home, where she and husband Jared Kushner live with their three children, and the White House. Reports mentioned she went on walks around her neighborhood. Ivanka also posted a few selfie videos from her home on her social media, in which she encouraged Americans to "be kind to one another" and "stay as positive as you possibly can."

Apart from video selfies, she posted a more elaborately produced Instagram video from the White House colonnade, advocating for more private sector investments. “We’ll keep fighting for you, we're gonna get through this. It’s going to be brighter on the other side. And until then, we’ve got your back,” the CNN report said. A selfie thanking Surgeon General Jerome Adams for an explainer video on creating own masks showed her own apparently handmade creation and a sewing kit.

Ivanka’s efforts to jump-start the small business scene come at a time when the world is keenly watching the resetting of the Chinese industrial town of Wuhan where the pandemic had its origins and is emerging from a 77-day-long lockout. The Hill reported the experience of Wuhan in easing back into normalcy amid reports of a likely second wave of infections is important for other cities making a comeback.