Ivanka’s seat at the table
Ivanka Trump was deputised to fill in for her father at a table of world leaders at the G20 summit, reigniting questions about the unorthodox mixing of family and government in US President Donald Trump’s White House.
The moment, captured in a photo by a member of Russia’s delegation, seemed to perfectly capture the scope of the first daughter’s expansive influence in Trump’s Administration. But it drew sharp criticism by some who say that the move demonstrates Trump’s flouting of democratic norms against such familial arrangements as wellestablished diplomatic protocols.
Former Nato ambassador Nicholas Burns, who served as a diplomat under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said the incident was a breach of protocols for such summits. Those traditions are intended to send a clear message to world leaders about who has power in the government.
Burns said in his experience at summits, the secretary of state would take the president’s place at the table.
“This is a group of the 20 most powerful leaders in the world in the 20 most powerful countries in the world,” Burns said. “It conveys that impression and we are a democracy and that’s also important here.” He added: “Authority is not conferred upon family members because of the president’s position.”
Ivanka Trump relieved her father, who had to leave the room for additional meetings. The move placed her squarely between British Prime Minister Theresa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping. “Yes, it stuck out,” said a senior European official who took part in the G20 talks. “The very fact that his daughter is senior adviser smacks of the kind of nepotism not seen since John F. Kennedy named Robert F. Kennedy as attorney general.”
Some critics online compared Ivanka Trump’s presence to a “banana republic” and argued that she is both “unelected” and “unqualified” to step into a role usually filled by officials with policy expertise.