Ivanka Trump to meet with Al Gore to discuss ‘climate issues’

By Jenna Johnson and Juliet Eilperin

The Washington Post

President-elect Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump was scheduled to meet Monday with Al Gore, the former Democratic vice president who has become a leading activist in the fight against global warming, to discuss “climate issues,” according to the president-elect’s spokesman.

Donald Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax” and has even accused the Chinese government of creating this fake problem to steal manufacturing jobs away from the United States. But Trump seemed to soften that position during a meeting with The New York Times late last month, saying that he would keep an “open mind” on the issue and acknowledged that human activity might be connected to changes in the climate.

Ivanka Trump, who is not registered with a political party, is one of the most influential people in Trump’s life, and has already pushed her father to adopt positions usually promoted by Democrats, including making child care more affordable to women. Although Ivanka Trump has said she does not plan to take an active role in her father’s administration, she is a member of his transition team. Her husband, Jared Kushner, is one of Trump’s most trusted aides. The couple is reportedly house-hunting in Washington.

Gore arrived at Trump Tower in New York late Monday morning and did not answer questions from reporters. Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, said on a morning briefing call with reporters that the president-elect does not plan to meet with Gore, and he did not provide any additional details about the meeting with Ivanka Trump. When asked if Trump and her father disagree on the issue of climate change, Miller said that he does not have any information to provide at this time.

While Gore was not personally close to Hillary Clinton – their relationship became strained in the wake of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment and as they both vied for Democratic donors’ support during their respective political bids in 2000 – the former vice president campaigned on her behalf late in this year’s presidential campaign.

Speaking to an audience at Miami Dade college in October, Gore warned that Trump, “based on the ideas that he has presented, would take us toward a climate catastrophe.” Appealing directly to millennials, he alluded to his own narrow loss to George W. Bush in 2000 in Florida and said young people could not afford to vote for anyone other than Clinton.

“The world is on the cusp of either building on the progress and solving the climate crisis, or stepping back, washing our hands of America’s traditional role as the leader of the world and letting the big polluters call the shots,” Gore said. “The choice is that clear. It’s that stark.”

But while national environmental groups and many scientists have already fired shots across the bow at Trump, suggesting he needs to respect scientific integrity and refrain from appointing advisers who would gut existing environmental and public health safeguards, some prominent activists have been exploring ways to influence the incoming administration. The most obvious target has been Ivanka Trump and her husband, since they are seen as the least conservative members of Trump’s family.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, recently gave her a copy of his new National Geographic documentary on climate change, “Before the Flood.” DiCaprio aired the documentary in October on the White House’s South Lawn, before which he appeared onstage with President Obama and atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe.

DiCaprio, who campaigned on Clinton’s behalf and aired the film on college campuses in Florida and elsewhere, did not mention Trump by name but alluded to him at the event.

“We must empower leaders who not only believe in climate change but are willing to do something about it,” he said. “The scientific consensus is in, and the argument is now over. If you do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in facts, or in science, or empirical truths, and therefore, in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to hold public office.”