Once Again, Ivanka Trump Is Trying Way Too Hard

Would this even be tolerated if she weren’t a White woman?

Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty

You could chalk up Ivanka Trump’s meteoric rise, both on the global diplomatic front and within her father’s administration, to business as usual for the Trump presidency. After all, Papa Trump is notorious for filling key cabinet positions with close advisors and family members.

But even for the Trumps, what happened this week is a new low.

Between the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan and meetings in South Korea and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the North Korea-South Korea border, the absence of actual experienced U.S. officials and diplomats (paging John Bolton) was glaring. Instead, those roles were replaced by the president’s daughter, which led to viral social media hashtags #IvankaIsASecurityThreat and #UnwantedIvanka memes.

In a not so subtle diplomatic diss, the cringeworthy video of Ivanka trying to inject herself into conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde was posted online by the French government. “It may be shocking to some, but being someone’s daughter actually isn’t a career qualification,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said on Twitter. “It hurts our diplomatic standing when the President phones it in & the world moves on.”

As the president introduced Ivanka Trump during a visit with American troops in South Korea, he shouted with glee, “She’s going to steal the show!”

The Trump White House is shooing away all valid criticisms and concerns, labeling them as “absolutely pathetic” accusations from “haters,” and even attempting to justify Ivanka’s presence at the table with heads of state as some kind of advancement of women’s rights.

“It is sad but not shocking that the haters choose to attack Ivanka Trump, a senior adviser to the president, when she is promoting U.S. efforts to empower women through strategic partnerships with world leaders,” White House deputy communications secretary, Jessica Ditto, said.