Republican leaders were visibly annoyed by Ivanka’s presence
This is a small thing, and yet…it’s so infuriating.
There was an important White House meeting today with Congressional leaders to discuss raising the debt ceiling. (Trump, probably confused, did what Pelosi and Schumer wanted instead of what Ryan and McConnell wanted. The latter two are not best pleased. Trump was probably composing a tweet at the time and lost track of which party was which.) It was serious grownup government business.
Another aide briefed on the meeting said that toward its conclusion, Ivanka Trump entered the room to say hello to the leaders and the discussion veered off-track. “Republican leaders were visibly annoyed by Ivanka’s presence,” the aide said. (A Ryan spokeswoman replied: “That’s not true.”)
To say hello for god’s sake.
You know, Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton were young girls when their fathers were president. I don’t recall ever hearing that they bounced into meetings with Congressional leaders “to say hello to the leaders.” Malia and Sasha Obama were even younger: ten and six at the start. Again, as far as I know, they understood that they weren’t supposed to drop in to say hello to Daddy’s friends the senators and representatives. Yet here is Princess Ivanka age 35 and she feels entitled to sit in for Daddy at a meeting of global heads of state and to interrupt government business to fucking say hello?
This isn’t cute.
She’s approximately the same age as my son. My son would know better.
Of course it’s not cute: she was there to shed light on the debt ceiling discussions! This is Ivanka Trump we’re talking about. Policy mastermind, economics genius, all-around savior.
Vanity Fair: Exiles on Pennsylvania Avenue: How Jared and Ivanka Were Repelled by Washington’s Elite — the two have had more impact on White House internal politics than on policymaking, and some White House staffers call Ivanka “Princess Royal” behind her back.
They also have had a curious tendency to be absent during major crises, often going off on vacation.
Vanity Fair: The Myth of Jared and Ivanka Meets Charlottesville — The two have been totally ineffective about the Charlottesville affair. A gentleman who spoke for the “Unite the Right” march went on record as faulting President Trump for “giving his daughter to a Jew.” Christopher Cantwell stated to Vice News that “I don’t think you can feel about race the way I do and watch that Kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl.” Many of the marchers had similar beliefs about Jews, chanting slogans like “The Jews will not replace us.” This is especially remarkable since both of them are Jewish, complete with Jared having lost some family members to the original Nazis.
Huffington Post: Steve Bannon Reportedly Calls Jared Kushner And Ivanka Trump ‘Javanka’ Behind Their Backs, like “Brangelina” (Brad + Angelina) and Bennifer (Ben + Jennifer).
The Independent: Indian diplomat likens Ivanka Trump to ‘half-wit Saudi prince’ ahead of summit where she will lead US delegation— quote:
An unnamed Indian diplomat told Bobby Ghosh, the editor-in-chief of the Hindustan Times: “We regard Ivanka Trump the way we do half-wit Saudi princes. It’s in our national interest to flatter them.”
He later added: “Yes, it is a shame that the US should be compared to a kingdom. But that is America’s shame, not Modi’s, or India’s.”
Why the Trump dynasty will last sixteen years | Edward Luttwak He points to the working class’s declining fortunes, like new cars being much less affordable than in the past, and he notes the failure of mainstream politicians to address this issue. He also claims that Donald Trump is grooming Ivanka to be his successor. So he expects DT to be president for two terms, and Ivanka after that for the next two terms.
However, she could be facing such competition as Chelsea Clinton and Bush family members like Jenna and Barbara II.
#4,
Wow. That article contains remarkably few true sentences. And it completely fails to prove the argument in its title. I hope Mr. Luttwak didn’t spend a lot of time on it.
Trump was not elected on this basis. How many signs said “I want a job” “I want a new car” “I’m broke”. No, these were middle-class and upper class white people shouting “Lock her up” or “Build a wall”. This was about hate and racism. This was about ugly emotional responses to seeing people who don’t look like you moving into your previously lily white communities and making a success (or at least managing to survive). I know. I live in one of those communities, and the rage is directed at the fact that it is not as white as it used to be – it’s declining, even though the people are not poorer. In fact, this area rode out the recession and hardly felt it overall, because it is so fat on government subsidies.
The real thing that people need to worry about is whether that racism is strong enough to carry through the four years, then to eight…I fear it might be, but I hope it won’t. It’s not easy to see an end in sight from where I am sitting, but then, I am sitting smack dab in the middle of the country where Confederate flags fly proud in a state that was not a Confederate state. LGBTQ citizens get rocks thrown through their windows. If the community theatre puts on a play that is perceived as being “kind” to LGBTQ (and they have a very broad definition, which can stretch to as far as a main character merely saying “Is it because I’m gay?”), they will receive hate mail in spades, and will pull their heads back into their carapaces for a few years, doing little but Church Basement Ladies until they feel it’s safe to venture out again – and find out it is not.
I realize that this area is not a representative microcosm of the entire country, so that’s why I say maybe. But I also realize that the Electoral College gives this particular area of the country an edge over the areas where a lot of people actually live, so I’m not holding my breath.
In reality, if these people were really about jobs, wanting new cars, etc, the obvious choice for them would have been Bernie Sanders. And he had the advantage of being white, and male (though Jewish). But Bernie didn’t express their hate. Bernie wanted economic equality for everyone; these people don’t want to have to work alongside people of color or women (and many of the women who voted for him feel that women shouldn’t be working, though I’m sure not all).
If we have 16 years of a Trump administration, which I doubt because I don’t think he could keep his finger off the trigger long enough, it will be racism, not economics, that puts them in the driver’s seat to stay.
I also find Edward Luttwak’s arguments odd. But I think that he may well be correct that President Trump is grooming Ivanka to be his successor. It would explain why she sits in a lot in official meetings.
Failing that, he may be grooming her to become his regent, in case he cannot function very well. Despite Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff John Kelly being more obvious candidates for such a position.