*By Alisha Haridasani*
First daughter Ivanka Trump shut down her eponymous clothing brand on Tuesday as consumer disapproval of her father caused sales to suffer.
“After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when, or if, I will ever return to the business,” Trump said in a statement. “My focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here.”
In 2017, Trump joined the White House as a senior adviser and [abdicated](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-resign-sell-assets) her executive role at the brand to avoid conflicts of interests, elevating Abigail Klem to company chief.
Even after Trump left the company, activists urged shoppers to boycott her products and the various retailers that carried it. Nordstrom and Canada's Hudson's Bay, which owns Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue, eventually dropped the brand for poor performance.
Watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleged in May that even after her Washington appointment, Trump was still receiving [profit](https://www.citizensforethics.org/ivanka-trumps-business-wins-approval-for-more-china-trademarks/) from the brand and benefiting from the administration's latest policies.
Ethical concerns against Trump were first raised in 2016 when she retained control of her company during her father's campaign and wore her own products to high-profile events, presumably promoting her brand.
Trump's company is among the many businesses in her father's stable and presents regulators with the unique challenge of monitoring the first family's politics and business gains.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
