John Oliver Tears Down the Absurd Notion of “Moderating Influences” Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

Donald Trump’s presidency is unabashedly horrifying. If you don’t believe me, check out his latest “unintelligible” interview transcript, this one with the AP, which lays his incoherence bare in a way smaller news items fail to do. That makes it hard to blame people for looking literally anywhere for solace, but in this instance, we need to be realistic; there’s no reason to believe Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner can or will do anything to help anyone but themselves.

It’s not that Trump’s daughter and son-in-law are bad people or even want bad political outcomes personally. It’s just that, not only do we not know enough about them to place any faith in them, but Trump’s presidency has marched on for its first 100 days without any sign of a moderating influence, despite how close he’s seemed with this pair the entire time, whether or not they had official roles in his administration just yet.

Meanwhile, Trump has tried to push through two travel bans that judges ruled were obviously intended to be “legal” versions of his previously proposed Muslim ban. He’s tried to gut healthcare just so he could say he got rid of “Obamacare” (the Affordable Care Act). He’s allowed states to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood despite reports of an Ivanka “secret meeting” with the same organization, removed wage transparency requirements on federal contractors, reinstated the “Global Gag Rule” on women’s healthcare providers abroad who also provide abortion services, and removed Obama-era protections for transgender students.

None of that is remotely moderate, and much of it has been especially negative for women. There are also assertions, some reportedly from within Trump’s own team, that Kushner is actually a Democrat. If he is, he’s doing a terrible job as a “moderating influence” on Trump, but it’s way more likely that Kushner just takes after his father-in-law, who’s also (laughably) been called a secret Democrat by some on the right, especially judging by his past, while his present actions are anything but.

(image: screengrab)

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