Clothes line in the sand
President Trump on Wednesday blasted Nordstrom for dropping his daughter Ivanka’s luxury fashion line — raising new questions about his continuing ties to his family’s businesses.
“My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!” Trump tweeted — on both his personal and presidential accounts — at 10:51 a.m.
The president’s official @POTUS account has 15.1 million followers, while Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account has 24.2 million.
The high-end retailer said the brand’s declining sales led to the de- cision to drop Ivanka’s products.
“Over the past year, and particularly in the last half of 2016, sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line,” the company said.
But the move followed calls for a boycott against retailers that sell Trump products — and White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Wednesday characterized Nordstrom’s decision as a personal “attack” on Ivanka.
“This is a direct attack on his policies and her name, so there’s clearly an attempt for him to stand up for her because she’s being maligned because they have a problem with his policies,“Spicer said.
“He ran, he won, and he has every right to stand up for his family.”
Nordstrom’s stock finished up more than 4 percent Wednesday.
The Ivanka boycott was organized by a group called Grab Your Wallet, a mocking reference to Trump’s infamous line that he could grab women “by the p---y.”
Ethics watchdogs said Trump appeared to be using the presidency to boost his daughter’s bottom line.
“We’ve never seen before a president using the power of the presidency to pressure businesses for the obvious benefit of his family,” Jordan Libowitz, spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Bloomberg News.
In a separate action, the company that owns TJMaxx and Marshalls discount apparel chains moved to downplay Ivanka’s line in its locations.