Ivanka Trump was criticized and mocked on social media after she was caught on video mingling with world leaders at the G20 summit in Japan this weekend.
Trump, who is an adviser in her father’s administration, appeared in the clip to insert herself into a conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
Critics like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) saw the video as fresh evidence that President Donald Trump runs his administration like a family business based on nepotism. “It may be shocking to some, but being someone’s daughter actually isn’t a career qualification,” the congresswoman tweeted.
Like father, like daughter
Critics have often complained of blurred boundaries in the Trump White House, and Ms. Trump’s appearance at the G20 summit invited more criticism in that vein. A video circulated by the French presidential palace appeared to show Ivanka Trump trying to talk to world leaders — some say awkwardly and unsuccessfully.
Ivanka Trump appears to be trying to get involved in a talk among Macron, May, Trudeau and Lagarde (IMF head).
The video is released by French Presidential palace. pic.twitter.com/TJ0LULCzyQ— Parham Ghobadi (@ParhamGhobadi) June 29, 2019
The video appears to show the circle of world leaders talking about social justice and women’s empowerment. While the leaders are shown making light, social conversation, some interpreted their body language as aloof and unreceptive to the president’s daughter.
In the video, Macron says something about social justice before being interrupted by Ms. Trump. Then May chimes in, saying: “As soon as you talk about the economic aspect of it, though, a lot of people start listening who wouldn’t otherwise listen.”
Ms. Trump, who spoke on bringing more women into the workforce at a G20 event that same day, saw an invitation to speak. “And it’s the same with the defense side,” Trump interjected. “In terms of the whole ecosystem, it’s been very male-dominated.”
Ivanka Trump’s appearance prompted ridicule from many Democrats, who saw a window to attack the president’s eldest daughter and make a point about his administration’s unconventional approach to diplomacy and statecraft. Ocasio-Cortez accused President Trump of “phoning it in” and sending in his “unqualified” daughter as a surrogate to handle important negotiations.
“It hurts our diplomatic standing when the [p]resident phones it in [and] the world moves on,” AOC tweeted. “The U.S. needs our [p]resident working the G20. Bringing a qualified diplomat couldn’t hurt either.”
A busy trip for the first family
To Ms. Trump’s credit, the leaders did not appear to be engaged in high-level conversation about international affairs. They seemed to be making light chatter on a topic that Ms. Trump has made a focus of her White House role, and which she spoke about at a women’s empowerment event at the G20 summit on Saturday.
“We believe that women’s inclusion in the economy is not solely a social justice issue, which of course it is. It’s also smart economic and defense policy,” Ivanka Trump said at the event.
Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner, also a White House adviser, also attended a round of negotiations with the president on restarting trade talks with China on Saturday, a fact that was overshadowed by social media mockery of her viral faux-pas. Some say that their involvement pre-sages a bigger role for the couple in shaping U.S-China policy down the road.
Dynastic diplomacy?
For his part, President Trump has been accused of running his White House like a family business, and the high-profile roles played by Ivanka and her husband have received particular scrutiny. To some, Ivanka’s role carries hints of the kind of diplomacy-through-charm associated with dynastic states. President Trump suggested as much Sunday when he hailed Ivanka as the “Beauty” to the “Beast” of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Ivanka’s semi-dynastic role appears to resonate in the Far East, where monarchies held sway for most of history. Indeed, the first daughter has quite the following in China, where she has been likened by many to a goddess.
Officially, Ms. Trump is an adviser whose mission has focused on women’s empowerment in the workforce. But the ambiguous role played by the president’s daughter took on a distinctly diplomatic dimension this weekend, as Ivanka appeared at meetings and in photos with world leaders in Osaka and later joined her father for a historic moment in North Korea.
Ivanka was also alongside President Trump when he became the first American president to set foot in the isolated, communist country on Sunday, and she joined Trump for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
While Ivanka’s role is troubling to some given the sensitive nature of Trump’s agenda — trade with China, nuclear weapons in North Korea — the attacks on the president’s daughter are hard to separate from the left’s reflexive hatred for the Trump family, and for Trump’s unconventional approach to governance in general. The establishment media, driven by knee-jerk anti-Trumpism, has consistently panned the president’s progress toward peace with North Korea as a series of concessions and blunders, and his historic moment Sunday was downplayed by critics as yet another photo-op.
Despite his so-called diplomatic faux-pas, President Trump’s unconventional approach is yielding progress that eluded his predecessors. His daughter Ivanka’s role may be unusual, but it would seem that the commander-in-chief’s unusual approach to world affairs is working.
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