“Second, isnt everyone missing the obvious? Kushner is adviser to the president of the US, whose actions affect jews in Israel and here (basically, almost all of the world’s jews). Doesnt that alone justify certain heterim?”
I still think that Trump secretly threatened to make a deal with the Arabs and kill all the Jews if Esther, I mean Ivanka, didn’t come to the inauguration. So it was a horaas sha’ah for her to go.
Seriously, it would have seriously damaged her relationship with him if she hadn’t gone, and maybe she really was scared of what he would do. Family relationships when someone has converted can be very tricky, and I would imagine that was a consideration in the heter. Maybe that’s what made it pikuach nefesh.
Who knows what Trump might have done if she hadn’t gone? He likes her a lot, but that’s because she does what he wants. He is not known for his stability or consistency or peaceful disposition.