Ivanka Trump may have always been “Daddy’s little girl,” (sorry Tiffany) dropping everything to become a prominent adviser to her father when Donald Trump became president, nepotism and conflict of interest notwithstanding, she was involved in numerous scandals. You may remember that time she supposedly shuttered her namesake brand in 2018, filing a disclosure with the government that stated “[a]ll operations of the business ceased on July 31, 2018.” That, however, isn’t what Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington found, however, because the business that Ivanka claimed no longer existed somehow made as much as $1 million from it in 2019.
This is sort of interesting for a business that no longer existed and it’s something that only happens for rich people. Like Ivanka, who was born into wealth and has never needed to worry about her next meal or where she would lay her head at night.
But in the tumultuous end to her father’s presidency, Ivanka seemed to turn to an “alternate reality” — her Instagram feed — a world that shows no evidence that her father was ever president, according to Slate’s Greg Olear on Friday.
“given that she was a registered democrat in 2016, ivanka could have elected not to participate in her father’s campaign. instead, she and her husband lent their full-throated support,” he writes.
“She introduced him when he formally announced his candidacy. she endorsed him. she made appearances on his behalf. she did radio ads for him. she gave the speech at the rnc just before his. she did not waiver in her support even after the access hollywood tape dropped.”
Perhaps Ivanka is retreating into this pretend world to feel better about herself. It would make sense because as Olear notes, while her dad was in office, she ignored a lot of the controversies that happened during his tenure — the sexual assault scandal that brewed during then-SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh, her father’s inept handling of the pandemic, his Islamophobic attempts to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. And she completely ignored the Women’s March, a worldwide event that took place on January 21, 2017. Olear couldn’t help but question how strong “the hold her bestial pops has on her.”
Because when you check out Ivanka’s Instagram page, you see a whole other life, as Raw Story notes — one that ignores the past few years, seemingly, as if her father was never president. We see her at concerts, sitting by pools, and spending time with her kids.
You get the idea.
Olear notes her Instagram posts are warm and friendly. There’s no hint of rancor, unlike dear old Dad, from which rancor spews daily.
“The captions, when they appear, are well written, thoughtful, gracious, kind. there is nary of whiff of humblebragging. Gratitude oozes from every post, from every ‘story.’ this is someone living the good life, who feels sincerely blessed to be living that good life. the woman on this instagram page loves her friends (what few of them appear, what few of them remain). she loves her children. she loves, supports, is proud of her husband.”
The photos suggest Ivanka is a woman who survived the maelstrom created by her father, but they also highlight a sad reality. Olear tells us “Ivanka’s Instagram feed is an alternate reality. It’s what her life would have been like if her loutish old man had never been president, had lost in 2016, had never gone into politics, had never sold himself to the Russian mob, had dropped dead of a massive coronary on the set of Home Alone 2. This is a rose-colored fantasy world she’s trying so hard to make real. If she didn’t care about the public perception of her, why would she bother?”
But really, Ivanka Trump could have stepped out of her father’s shadow, and she would have been so much more fully human if she had.
“the tragedy in all of this is that ivanka speaking out against donald would have saved lives,” olear reminds us.
He acknowledges Trump’s eldest daughter would have faced a rocky path if she spoke out against her “petty, vengeful” father, but the price of staying silent was far, far heavier.
It’s a lesson we were all punished with.
Her whole life has been a fantasy camp. Riding in the limo, as they pass all the dead bodies of brown people at the border, the crying children torn from THEIR mommies, the abandoned poor, the destroyed Kurds, the 400,000 dead from daddy AND hubby’s decision to let covid run amok among blue states, and many other horrors she supported, she just rolls up the dark windows, and pretends SHE isn’t covered in innocent blood. You are bitch, no matter how many Ozzie and Harriet moments you post!
I’m struck by the very political looking picture she uses with the flags. seems like something a politician would use.