American diplomacy: the ubiquitous Ivanka Trump
“First daughter” has a knack for interfering in discussions between heads of state and relegating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the background.
When the British Trade Minister arrived in Washington earlier this week to discuss a new trade deal with the United States, he spoke to Ivanka Trump. Days earlier, the president's daughter had accompanied her father to the G20 summit in Japan while Melania stayed at home. She attended various meetings, was seated in the front row of her father's press conference, appeared in the group photo of the leaders… The White House posted a video on her Twitter account where we see her, a little awkwardly , present as if she were the spokesperson for the State Department the account of the talks between Donald Trump and the Prime Ministers of India and Japan.
President Trump had a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Abe, followed by a bilateral meeting with PM Modi. Here is the readout: pic.twitter.com/xE46ol5kqU
— The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) June 28, 2019
Above all, she was, along with her husband Jared Kushner, part of the small delegation that went to the demilitarized zone in Korea to meet Kim Jong-un. She posed for the photos, spoke to the press and even appears to have attended the discussion between the two men when John Bolton, the National Security adviser, was not there. On leaving, she described the meeting as "surreal".
" The beauty and the Beast "
The diplomatic omnipresence of Donald Trump's favorite daughter is testament to the changes in the White House. For a long time, Ivanka remained in the shadows, partly under pressure from John Kelly, the secretary general, who would have done everything to limit his influence. But he was sacked and his successor leaves the family full latitude. Hence the increasingly public role of this mother of three children, who has worked hard to refine her image. When Donald Trump addressed American troops at the Osan base in South Korea, Mike Pompeo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, stepped onto the stage to join him. "And you know who's there too?" Have you ever heard of Ivanka? »Launched the president. "She's going to steal the show," he added as she approached all smiles alongside Pompeo. " What a handsome couple. Beauty and the Beast, ”he joked. Later he will tell reporters, “I thought Ivanka was amazing in the G20, and I'll tell you, the foreign leaders love her, they think she's great. She is very smart and she did a good job. She made a lot of sacrifices. "
This leading role gives rise to many criticisms and accusations of nepotism. No one knew that Ivanka, who worked on real estate projects in the family group and started a clothing brand, knew all about tariffs or denuclearization, scoffed at grief spirits. An official adviser to the president, she also has no specific mandate within the government. And she and her husband only got their security clearance, an authorization at the highest level that allows access to meetings and highly confidential matters, because Donald Trump demanded it. The FBI and several members of the administration were against it, believing that Jared's ties to Russia during the campaign and his conflicts of interest with Saudi Arabia (his family has real estate projects with the kingdom) l 'prevented from being accredited.
A "constitutional monarchy"?
As for Ivanka, she was involved in two real estate projects in Panama and Azerbaijan which are said to be suspected of corruption and money laundering. “It seems to the world that we have some kind of constitutional monarchy. This poses more and more problems for our credibility ... It signals to our allies, to everyone with whom we have contact that the only people who matter are Trump and his family, ”Christopher Hill told The Washington Post, a former ambassador for the Bush administration. Democrat elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted after the G20: “It may be shocking to some, but being someone's daughter is not really a professional qualification. "
And there were a few hiccups. Ivanka Trump, for example, declared that India was "a critical ally". But diplomats avoid this terminology. And then there was the 19 seconds of a video posted on the Elysée's Instagram account where she looks like she's been snubbed by a group of leaders. She is seen trying to intervene in a conversation between Christine Lagarde, Teresa May and Emmanuel Macron at the G20 in Japan. May is speaking and Trump's daughter is commenting. Christine Lagarde, who suddenly seems to discover her existence, looks at her with a pinched air which has been interpreted as "what is she doing here?" The clip has been the subject of multiple hilarious parodies on #UnwantedIvanka where Ivanka pops up in all kinds of famous historical moments, from the Last Supper to the Yalta conference. "It's sad that hateful people have chosen to attack Ivanka Trump, an adviser to the president, when she is promoting American efforts to empower women through strategic partnerships with world leaders," retorted one spokespersons for the White House.
It may be shocking to some, but being someone’s daughter actually isn’t a career qualification.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 30, 2019
It hurts our diplomatic standing when the President phones it in & the world moves on.
The US needs our President working the G20. Bringing a qualified diplomat couldn’t hurt either. https://t.co/KCZMXJ8FD9
The unclear role of the couple Jared-Ivanka
When she arrived in Washington, many hoped that this staunch Democratic businesswoman would play a moderating role with her father. But she was no more successful in channeling him than the other advisers. Donald Trump in particular decided to withdraw from the Paris agreement on global warming against his opinion. After this failure, she focused on subjects close to her heart such as the cause of women. She has made several trips to India, Africa and this winter launched an initiative to economically help 50 million women around the world by 2015. Behind the scenes, she also pushed for tax cuts, for measures in education ...
Already in 2017, Ivanka Trump made a name for herself by briefly sitting in her father's place alongside other leaders at a G20 meeting in Germany. Her husband is on all fronts with an ever-expanding portfolio. Besides his plan to restore peace in the Middle East, he obviously has time to deal with prison reform, immigration, technological modernization of the public sector, the trade agreement with Mexico ... a congressional hearing, Rex Tillerson the ex-minister of foreign affairs explained that the couple "Jivanka" had complicated their task by leading a shadow department of state (shadow cabinet) and meeting without informing him foreign dignitaries. "One of the challenges I think everyone had ... was learning how to deal with the unique situation with the president's son-in-law and daughter as members of the advisory team," he said, before to add. “There was no clear definition of role, responsibilities, authority (from Jared and Ivanka, Editor's note) ... which was a challenge for everyone. In a recent book, Kushner, Inc .: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, author Vicky Ward says Kushner's nickname is "Minister of". And Ivanka's office is nicknamed “HABI” for “home of all bad ideas”.
"Dynasty"
What are the ambitions of the “first daughter”? Mystery. A former economic adviser to the president, Gary Cohn, reportedly told Vicky Ward: “Ivanka thinks she will be president of the United States. Her father's reign over Washington marks, she believes, the beginning of a great American dynasty. Like the Kennedys and the Bushes? Her daddy Donald Trump told The Atlantic that he had considered appointing her Ambassador to the United Nations or President of the World Bank. “She is naturally a diplomat. She would have been very good at the United Nations. According to him, she would have been also perfect at the World Bank "because she knows a lot about numbers". But he didn't, because "it looked like it was nepotism, when it has nothing to do with nepotism." Ah yes ?
