Ivanka Trump Says It’s Not Appropriate to Ask a Daughter About Her Father’s Accusers, But She’s Only Just “a Daughter” When She Feels Like It
During an interview with the Today Show, Ivanka Trump was asked if she believed the women who have accused her father-boss of sexual misconduct. Her response was to chastise the interviewer, Peter Alexander, saying she thought the question was “inappropriate.”
“I think it’s a pretty inappropriate question,” she smile-whispered, “to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated that there’s no truth to it.”
She went on, “I don’t think that’s a question you would ask many other daughters. I believe my father. I know my father. So I think I have that right as a daughter, to believe my father.”
“I think it’s a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated there’s no truth to it.” –@IvankaTrump pic.twitter.com/23AVPgcOdE
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 26, 2018
A daughter certainly does have the right to stand by her father. (Though when that father has been accused of sexually predatory behavior by more than a dozen women and admitted to such behavior on numerous occasions, she may very well receive criticism.) And no, this isn’t a question that would be asked of many other daughters. But Ivanka Trump isn’t other daughters. And she only chooses to play the daughter card when it suits her.
Ivanka Trump can be a daughter who gets to avoid these questions. Or she can be a White House staffer, a senior advisor to the President. She can meet with foreign leaders to discuss issues of diplomacy and economic policy. She can lead the U.S. delegation during the closing ceremony at the Olympics.
But she cannot do both. Or rather, she cannot deny that she holds one position in favor of the other, just because it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable. Much of America feels uncomfortable with the idea that she holds such a powerful position despite having literally no qualification other than her last name. (And that’s only if you consider nepotism a “qualification.”) I don’t know why she thinks she gets to escape discomfort.
She's a quantum white house staffer, she both is and isn't a serious policymaker depending on what is convenient at that second.
— Andrew J. (@1Andrew_J) February 26, 2018
Not only does Ivanka Trump deflect responsibility when she feels like it, but she weaponizes her victimhood, painting her father’s critics as callous villains who would stoop so low as to come after his child. But this is not the same as the Obamas or the Clintons insisting the press stop attacking their children. For one thing, those were actual children at the time their fathers were in office, not adult progeny like Trump. And they sure as hell weren’t employed as senior government officials in their parents’ White House.
Ivanka Trump wants us to pity her for being treated like she holds the very job she undeservedly stumbled into.
(image: Eric Gaillard-Pool/Getty Images)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
