"I get a little bit frustrated when people call it a pet project," Trump told The Associated Press as she spent a day shuttling between events in multiple states. "This is a major project, this is not a pet project. This is a major initiative to ensure that there is meaningful middle-income tax relief for the American taxpayer."
Trump, who had already been to Japan, California and Maine in the previous two weeks, spent Monday zipping from a morning television interview in New York City to a tax event at the New Jersey shore, grabbing a quick face-time moment on the train with her kids along the way.
From New Jersey, she was back on the train headed to Washington for a workforce development meeting. The planes, trains and automobiles tour wasn't glamorous. And it was a long way from her days as a celebrity heiress and personal brand booster. But meeting by meeting, Ivanka Trump is learning the ways of Washington. Once dismissed as a first lady stand-in who'd rather stay out of the fray, Trump appears to be developing a thicker skin, digging in and putting herself on the line for the policy she's claimed as her own.
"I'm feeling better than I've ever felt since I've been here," Trump said this week, as she hit the road to promote the tax overhaul effort that has drawn Democratic criticism and spurred internal GOP conflict. As her day played out, Trump spoke exclusively to the AP about the high-stakes political push after months of behind-the-scenes work. "I'm incredibly optimistic about tax reform."
On her hop from New York to New Jersey, the first daughter settled into a commuter car with a small group of aides and Secret Service agents. She reviewed a speech for an upcoming trip to India and cut short her chat with the kids when she realized she was in the quiet car.
Trump says she and husband Jared Kushner, a fellow White House adviser, have no plans to return to their old New York City life any time soon. "It's definitely not short-term," Trump said.
Trump who stepped away from her executive roles at The Trump Organization and running her own fashion brand to join the administration is also taking on a bigger international role, with a recent speech in Japan at a Tokyo conference on women's advancement, and an upcoming trip to India for a conference on entrepreneurship. Of her hectic Washington life, Trump says, "I believe you go through sprints and rests and we're in a full-blown sprint."
It is a mark of the importance the Trump administration attaches to achieving a tax overhaul that Ivanka Trump opted out of her father's Asia trip to stay home and promote the GOP tax plan. On Monday she was at a fire hall in New Jersey with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The tax overhaul is a top White House priority after 10 months without any major legislative wins for the Republicans.
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