Ivanka Trump Says She Won't Tell Her Family's Own Company to Sign 'Hire American' Pledge

First daughter Ivanka Trump spent the better part of last week promoting a new White House initiative to hire American workers and get companies to pledge to invest in the workforce. But when asked if her family's business would sign the pledge, she refused to take leadership.

Related: Ivanka Trump Called 'Hypocrite' and 'Faux Feminist' on Jobs By Democrats

Trump showed she was not willing to push for a pledge from the Trump Organization, President Donald Trump's real estate company he stepped down from but has not fully divested from, during a conversation with Gray Television's Washington bureau chief Jacqueline Policastro over the weekend.

The first daughter said that the initiative, launched Thursday, is "about really thinking holistically about skills development, vocational education, apprenticeships," and that "we're going to take it across the country so it's called the Pledge to America's Worker, and we are hoping that companies large and small join with us."

Policastro asked which companies would sign up for the pledge to retrain workers.

"We are inviting large employers, small employers, trade associations, to join us and sign this pledge to America's worker. IBM, Lockheed Martin, Walmart. Walmart pledged 1 million workers. FedEx, the founder of FedEx, Fred Smith, pledged to create job opportunities for 500,000 additional workers," Ivanka Trump said. "So we had unbelievable numbers."

Policastro then asked, "Do you think the Trump Organization might sign the pledge too?"

"It's a great idea! I will recuse myself from calling them," the first daughter responded, "but somebody in this room should do it!"

Ivanka Trump's unwillingness to facilitate a pledge is not surprising, given the Trump Organization's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida asked for permission to hire 78 foreign workers at starting salaries of $10.68 per hour for housekeepers, $12.68 per hour for waiters and $13.31 per hour for cooks.

While on the campaign trail, President Trump promised to "hire American," and has said that employing low-skilled immigrant workers drove wages down for Americans. But he has also defended hiring foreign workers by claiming other resorts have done so.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek on Monday.

Ivanka Trump, in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal last Tuesday, stated that more than 15 companies and associations would sign the pledge "to educate, train and reskill" Americans.

"They commit to expanding apprenticeships, increasing on-the-job training, and providing Americans from high school to near-retirement with opportunities to obtain skills to secure stable jobs and careers in the modern economy," she wrote. "We call upon employers large and small to join this crucial initiative to create more jobs, strengthen our economy and restore hopeful futures to countless families."