President defends daughter; son takes shot at CNN
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump used his favorite megaphone — Twitter — to defend his daughter Ivanka on Monday morning for a possible breach of diplomatic protocol at the Group of 20 summit last weekend.
Though Trump’s oldest daughter has repeatedly said she tries to steer clear of politics, she found herself thrust into a political maelstrom Saturday when she briefly filled in for her father at a table of world leaders when he left the room for other meetings.
Ivanka was seated between British Prime Minister Theresa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a massive table during a G-20 working session on “Partnership With Africa, Migration and Health.”
Her decision to briefly fill in for her father immediately sparked a backlash, ranging from international eyerolls to outright criticism. And on Monday, President Trump — who seemed to spend the early morning hours alternately watching and then live-tweeting “Fox & Friends” — turned to Twitter to defend his daughter.
“When I left Conference Room for short meetings with Japan and other countries, I asked Ivanka to hold seat,” Trump wrote. “Very standard. Angela M agrees!”
He added that if Chelsea Clinton had been in a similar situation, instead of outrage, the reaction from the news media would have been calls for Chelsea herself to run for president.
“If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother, as her mother gave our country away, the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!” Trump wrote.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel — or “Angela M” in Trump parlance — earlier this year hosted Ivanka at a summit focused on women empowerment in Berlin and did defend the president’s daughter to reporters.
“Ivanka Trump belonged to the American delegation, so that is in line with what other delegations do,” Merkel said Saturday.
Meanwhile, one of the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., is promoting a new mock video of his father attacking CNN.
Trump Jr. tweeted a video of a doctored clip of the 1986 military thriller “Top Gun” on Saturday. In the video, President Donald Trump’s face is superimposed over Tom Cruise’s character as he shoots down a Russian jet bearing a CNN logo.
In the clip, Trump repeats his “you’re fired” catchphrase before launching a missile.
Trump Jr. called the video “one of the best I’ve seen.” It wasn’t immediately clear where the video came from.