Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump helped lead the charge to scuttle a draft executive order that would have overturned Obama-era enforcements of LGBT rights in the workplace, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told POLITICO.
A draft executive order on LGBT rights that outlines how to roll back former President Barack Obama’s protections and expand legal exemptions based on religious beliefs has been circulating among journalists and worried progressive groups this week.
But two sources close to Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who have a record of supporting gay rights, said the couple favored putting out a clear statement from the president, promising to uphold the 2014 Obama executive order and stopping the momentum for the turnaround in its tracks.
On Tuesday night, the White House released a statement saying that “President Donald J. Trump is determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community. President Trump continues to be respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights, just as he was throughout the election.”
“The executive order signed in 2014, which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors, will remain intact at the direction of President Donald J. Trump,” the statement continued.
White House officials downplayed the turnaround, suggesting that the draft LGBT executive order would never have reached the president’s desk for his signature. They described it as one of about 200 executive orders that were contemplated during the transition — some by outside groups, others by transition officials — and that it was never intended to be signed, even without pushback from Kushner, Ivanka Trump or anyone else.
“Some are real, some are drafts of things people like, and some are ideas people from outside have suggested,” a White House official told POLITICO, describing the executive orders that have been written.
But the statement did not quash the chatter completely. Members of the religious right with ties to the Trump administration said they have been led to believe that some changes will still be forthcoming. “I think they’re going to address the conflict that exists currently, which would preclude religious organizations from contracting with the federal government,” Tony Perkins, CEO of the Family Research Council, said in an interview. “I feel confident that they have an appreciation of religious freedom, and I’m pretty certain they’re going to address it. I’m talking to people in the Trump administration, and I know they understand the importance of this.”
Perkins said that Vice President Mike Pence has been involved and is “clearly sensitive to this.” If so, the fight over LGBT rights could reveal a fault line between Pence, an evangelical Christian who as governor of Indiana signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2015; and Kushner, who is Jewish and whose social circle includes socially progressive New Yorkers.
“There are some in Trump’s family that have some views on these things,” said a source close to the discussions. “That’s where the decision is ultimately being made.”
Democratic groups like the nonprofit Center for American Progress are also continuing to oppose changes they think could still come. “If accurate, this executive order would sanction sweeping taxpayer-funded discrimination against LGBT people, women, and their families in blatant violation of Trump’s promise to ‘protect our LGBT citizens,’” said Winnie Stachelberg, executive vice president for external affairs at CAP. Stachelberg said the White House statement left open a channel to broaden religious exemptions that prevent gay and transgender individuals from getting health care, or fostering a child.
“There are a lot of ideas that are being floated out,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said at the briefing on Thursday when asked about the LGBT executive order. “Part of it is, the president does all the time, he asks for input, he asks for ideas, and on a variety of subjects there are staffing procedures that go on where people have a thought or an idea and it goes through the process.”
Some of the confusion stems from how the executive orders have been written. “It wouldn’t be surprising to me if there were lots of documents floating around that people wrote, where they thought the administration might go,” said James Carafano, a vice president at The Heritage Foundation, who advised the Trump transition on foreign policy issues.
“This president’s No. 1 priority is demonstrating to the people that got him elected that he is doing the people’s business,” said Carafano, who’s organization backs a religious freedom executive order.
But Carafano noted that it makes most sense for the administration to churn out executive orders that are in line with Trump’s campaign promises. Trump, the first Republican nominee to feature an openly gay speaker at his convention, did not highlight action on religious freedom . “For them to put out an executive order that didn’t try and match up with the priorities that he campaigned on would be an unforced error,” said Carafano.