Trump ‘not allowed to call daughter beautiful’
WASHINTION: US President Donald Trump used a raucous campaign rally in New Hampshire to bemoan that he was “not allowed” to call his daughter Ivanka beautiful after comments on his eldest female offspring raised eyebrows.
The president used a rally in New Hampshire to relive his first presidential campaign, defending having lost the state in 2016 by claiming, without evidence, that voters had been bussed into the state to vote for Hillary Clinton.
He also heaped scorn on leader of the house Nancy Pelosi following his impeachment, to cries of ‘lock her up” from his audience of more than 11,000 people.
And in a section of the speech devoted to thanking people who had worked on his previous presidential campaign and in his administration, Mr Trump appeared to hit back at criticism of his tone when it comes to speaking of his eldest daughter.
Bringing her on to the stage, he introduced her as “A woman that not too many people know – very powerful, very smart… very beautiful even though I’m not allowed to say that because she’s my daughter“.
The president has faced criticism for the way he refers to his child’s looks – reportedly telling a Miss Universe winner in 1997, when Ivanka was 16, “Don’t you think my daughter’s hot? She’s hot, right?”.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2015, he said of her: “She’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father...’” At the rally Mr Trump went on to invite his daughter on stage while he praised the work of her husband, Jared Kushner, on “trade deals and other deals the likes of which nobody has ever seen before”.
The 45th president also asked his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, to join him on stage to chants of ‘46’ – a reference to support for him to take on the presidency after his father reaches the end of his time in office.
His appearance comes ahead of the New Hampshire primary, where is likely to be endorsed to run for a second term with little opposition after winning the Iowa caucus with 97 per cent of the vote.
However while primaries have traditionally been a formality for incumbent presidents, his appearance in the region allows him to loom over the Democratic race for the nomination, where candidates are currently vying to win support in America’s second early voting state.
Some 45km away Bernie Sanders, who came out on top in Iowa alongside Pete Buttigieg in a scrappy vote count that left long-time poll leader Joe Biden in fourth, was holding his own rally to an audience of more than 7,500.