WORLD OF DISGUST
Hops into Pop’s seat Twitstorm over bad optics
PLAYING MUSICAL chairs on the global stage with daughter Ivanka sounded a very sour note for President Trump.
A cavalcade of criticism buried the chief executive and Ivanka after she jumped into her father’s seat Saturday during an official event at the Group of 20 summit for world leaders.
“Because an unelected, unqualified, unprepared New York socialite is the best person to represent American national interests,” sniped Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof expressed similar concerns about the impromptu “Take Your Daughter to Work Day,” when Ivanka moved up after Trump bolted early to meet with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
“To me, it feels banana-republicky for the U.S. to be represented by an inexperienced daughter,” he tweeted.
The anti-Ivanka avalanche came after a Russian official tweeted out a picture of the 35-year-old Trump sitting in her dad’s vacant seat as the World Bank president spoke during a session on African development.
In the shot with her were British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Trump’s replacement: Ivanka Trump suddenly appears at negotiating table,” read the snarky headline on German newspaper Bild website.
Merkel defended the presidential fill-in, saying the swap was “in line with what other delegations do. And it is known that she works at the White House and carries responsibility for certain initiatives.”
World leaders often bring high-ranking officials to these meetings, with top ministers or secretaries typically filling in.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was in attendance with the Trumps at the meeting in Hamburg, Germany.
And a White House official said Ivanka, an unpaid White House adviser, was sitting in the back of the room when the President exited. She then temporarily sat down in the vacant seat, setting off the internet kerfluffle.
But ABC News analyst Matthew Dowd, a former chief campaign strategist for President George W. Bush, ripped into the optics of the scene.
“Can you imagine what the GOP/Trump fans would be saying if this was Chelsea or Malia doing this?” he asked. “We are a republic, not a monarchy.”
Foreign-policy expert and author Brian Klaas, after dissing Ivanka as “unelected (and) unqualified,” took a wider blast at the Trump administration.
“Sort of the whole point of America was that governmental authority was bestowed by the people not by birth,” tweeted Klaas.
In addition to Ivanka, her husband, Jared Kushner, has assumed a large role in the Trump White House over the past months.
“This kind of thing happens all the time,” read a deadpan tweet from women’s rights advocate Amy Siskind. “In dictatorships.”
The back and forth sparked a Twitter war between CNN commentator Ana Navarro and Ivanka’s brother Donald Jr.
“Lawd!” tweeted Navarro. “It’s always something with these Trump kiddos. Given choice b/w
Pres. Donald or Pres. Ivanka, I’d take her. After all, she’s smart and eloquent and knows how to make champagne popsicles.”
The president’s namesake son quickly banged out a pair of angry responses.
“She is VERY smart and eloquent,” he said of Ivanka. “You can belittle her all that you want w your snark, but we all know 1 on 1 she (is) way out of your league ...
“If the left is so ‘outraged’ about Ivanka sitting in for a few minutes, maybe they’d be happier if I sub in for a while???”
Navarro volleyed back with a shot at Donalds Sr. and Jr.
“Oh no! I got under Little Boy Trump’s thin skin,” she tweeted. “Not his fault. It’s hereditary.”
United Nation Ambassador Nikki Haley, speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said Ivanka puts herself front-and-center on certain issues.
“I think she sees herself as part of a public-servant family, and she doesn’t want to waste this time by not putting forward some effort to try and help the world,” said Haley.
Earlier in the day, Ivanka Trump joined forces with the World Bank to roll out a new fund intended to help female entrepreneurs gain access to financing.
Trump pledged $50 million from the U.S. to the new World Bank Group Facility for Women Entrepreneurship. The proud President then heaped praise on his daughter.
Trump did not tweet about the seat-switching controversy, and — unlike other foreign leaders — he left the summit without taking questions from reporters.