Tuesday, June 12 will mark the historic summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un — the first-ever meeting between a sitting American president and a North Korean leader. As the meeting approaches, you may be wondering who will be in attendance, including whether Ivanka Trump will be at the North Korea summit. As it turns out, the first daughter and presidential adviser will not be in attendance at the historic summit in Singapore, though she has previously been present at major diplomatic events.
The in-person meeting between Donald Trump and Kim is scheduled to take place at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. It will be held at the Capella Hotel on the island of Sentosa. According to Politico, Trump will be accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chief of Staff John Kelly, and National Security Adviser John Bolton. Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump will remain in Washington.
While she will not be accompanying her father to the summit, Trump, in her role as a White House adviser, has previously engaged in several high-level diplomatic endeavors either alongside or on behalf of her father. For example, in July of last year, Trump (somewhat controversially) briefly sat in for the president at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. The move was considered controversial because, as Rebecca Morin of Politico reported, typically only "government ministers or senior officials" sit in for heads of state.
However, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defended Ivanka Trump's actions at the G-20 meeting, saying in July 2017 that the first daughter had stepped in because issues related to her women's entrepreneurship portfolio were being discussed at the meeting. "She's got her certain issues that she focuses on, and when those things come up, then that's where she is," Haley told CBS' Face the Nation. Ivanka Trump is "very well accepted nationally and internationally," Haley added.
In addition to sitting in for her father at the G-20, Trump has also been involved in other high-level diplomatic endeavors. She led the U.S. delegation at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea in February 2018. During this same visit, she also met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to brief him on North Korean economic sanctions. Indeed, as CNN reported on Feb. 25, the White House released a statement that revealed the extent of Trump's diplomatic work in South Korea, saying:
[Ivanka] Trump delivered a personal message to President Moon from President Trump about today's North Korea related sanctions announcement at a small meeting at the Blue House. They also discussed the continued effort on the joint maximum pressure campaign against North Korea.
Thus, while Trump will not be in Singapore to attend the historic North Korea summit as part of her father's delegation, it is clear that the president has tasked her with significant diplomatic endeavors in the past.
According to Politico, thus far the White House has not released a list of topics that will be discussed by Donald Trump and Kim at the summit. However, the Trump administration has given indications that it will likely be discussing the prospect of North Korea's denuclearization. Moreover, as the outlet also reported, North Korean sources have noted that the two leaders will probably discuss the international economic sanctions currently faced by North Korea.
The summit is being followed by many around the world. Indeed, as The Guardian reported based on information from Singapore's ministry of communications, around 2,500 international journalists have registered to cover the event. Thus, while Ivanka Trump will not be accompanying her father to Singapore, you can bet that she, along with many others, will be watching very closely to see the results of the historic meeting between the United States and North Korea.
