What did Donald Trump do today?

He reluctantly decided not to try to put his own daughter in his cabinet.

Trump address reporters this afternoon about the surprise resignation of U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. A reporter asked whether he was considering replacing her with one of his national security advisors, Dina Powell, in order to replace "one strong woman with another."

Trump responded this way:

Well Dina's certainly a person I would consider, and she is under consideration. We have actually many names... There are other, I've heard a lot of names. I've heard Ivanka! I've heard, 'How good would Ivanka be!' The people that know, it's nothing to do with nepotism, but I want to tell you, the people that know, know that Ivanka would be dynamite. But, uh, I'd then be accused of nepotism, if you can believe it, right? Yes? ...I think Ivanka would be incredible, that doesn't mean I'd, I'd pick her, because--you'd be accused of nepotism! Even thought I'm not sure there's anyone more competent in the world.

Given the definition of the word--"favoritism (as in appointment to a job) based on kinship"--Trump is probably correct that he would be accused of nepotism if he appointed his daughter, a model turned fashion brand owner, to a cabinet-level diplomatic post. 

Ivanka Trump herself, who sometimes shows better political awareness than her father, quickly took herself out of the running--but remains in her current job, Senior Advisor to the President. (Her husband, Jared Kushner--like Donald Trump the heir to a real estate fortune--holds the same title.)

Trump's flirtation with gifting his daughter the a cabinet-level position comes a week after the release of a report showing that his own father essentially purchased all of his businesses for him, in illegal tax schemes that gave him a $413 million head start in the business world. (Trump still claims he received only a "small loan of a million dollars.") 

Why should I care about this?

• Government jobs should be given to the people most qualified to do them, not to favored children of the president.