Kind words for US president draw jeers
BERLIN: Ivanka Trump shared the stage on Tuesday with some of the world’s most powerful women, representing the United States at a meeting of female business leaders.
But during a panel discussion that also included her host, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Ms Trump was jeered by members of the audience.
On her first official overseas trip as an adviser to the president, Ms Trump was thrust into a more familiar role — defending her father’s behaviour to sceptical foreigners.
“The German audience is not that familiar with the concept of a first daughter,” the panel’s moderator, Miriam Meckel, editor-in-chief of the financial weekly WirtschaftsWoche, said. “I’d like to ask you, what is your role, and who are you representing, your father as president of the United States, the American people, or your business?”
“Certainly not the latter,” Ms Trump replied, adding, “And I am rather unfamiliar with this role as well, as it is quite new to me.”
During the panel discussion, which included Ms Merkel and Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Ms Trump, 35, relied on a familiar script.
President Donald Trump has been “a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive”, she said. That comment prompted some members of the audience to groan and hiss.
“You hear t he reaction from the audience,” Ms Merkel said. “I need to address one more point. Some attitudes toward women your father has displayed might leave one questioning whether he’s such an empowerer for women.”
Ms Merkel seemed to be referring to a 2005 video that was publicised during the 2016 presidential election in which Mr Trump was recorded on an open microphone disparaging women and bragging about sexual assault.
“I’ve certainly heard the criticism from the media, that’s been perpetuated,” Ms Trump said, leading to laughter from some of the people at the conference.
Ms Trump added that the thousands of women who worked for her father’s businesses, “are a testament to his belief and solid conviction in the potential of women and their ability to do the job as well as any man”. She said her father had raised her just the same as he did her two brothers. “He encouraged me and enabled me to thrive.”
Ms Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are considered among the president’s closest advisers, and she has been a source of fascination and criticism for international observers sceptical of the administration’s motives. The president’s muted comments on Russia, his criticisms of Nato, and his unilateralist tendencies have rattled leaders across the world, especially in Europe.
After the lively panel discussion in Berlin on Tuesday, Ms Trump took the heckling she received from the audience in stride.
“Politics is politics, as I’m learning,” she said with a smile. It is better to disagree openly, she suggested, than to smooth over differences and not advance on policy.