Daughterwife Ivanka sits in for exhausted Trump at G20 Summit
That’s the way a junta works.
Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, took his seat at a Group of 20 meeting table in Hamburg, sitting in for the president when he stepped away for one-on-one meetings with world leaders.
A photo on Twitter shows Ivanka Trump sitting at her father’s place, between Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Theresa May. One official who was watching the session said she has taken her father’s place at the table on at least two occasions today and did not speak.
A spokesman for Ivanka Trump said she had been sitting in the back of the room and then briefly joined the main table when the president stepped out. The president of the World Bank addressed the meeting, which was about African migration and health — areas that would benefit from a facility that Ivanka Trump and the World Bank had announced shortly before the meeting, the spokesman said.
G-20 leaders are allowed to bring staff into the room for some of the meetings, and when other leaders stepped out during today’s session, their seats were briefly filled by others. Ivanka Trump serves as an unpaid adviser to her father, as an assistant to the president.
This is not normal – or acceptable – in the world of diplomacy.
The reaction was immediate, horrified and not at all complimentary.
As America woke to the news that Donald Trump had dispatched his eldest daughter, Ivanka, to fill in for him at a G20 meeting with world leaders, the response of people ran from outraged to stunned, and then back to outraged.
“Why the hell is Ivanka Trump sitting in for daddy at G20 meetings?! What are her qualifications? Who voted for her?” the writer Charles Blow said on Twitter.
Pulitzer-winning journalist Anne Applebaum, said: “Because an unelected, unqualified, unprepared New York socialite is the best person to represent American national interests.”
Nicholas Kristoff, a columnist for the New York Times, said: “Ivanka fills in for her dad beside Xi Jinping. To me, it feels banana-republicky for the US to be represented by an inexperienced daughter.”
Here is some additional perspective…
Ivanka Trump, unelected, unqualified, daughter-in-chief, is representing the US at the G20 summit next to May, Xi, Merkel. Photo @LanaLukash pic.twitter.com/fvs0EMy8z7
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) July 8, 2017
The former dictator of Uzbekistan used to do this kind of thing with his daughter. US setting a great example at G20 https://t.co/PLMz5fRUD1
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) July 8, 2017
Had Michelle Obama (more qualified than Ivanka) filled Barack's seat at the G-20, the media and the GOP would be calling for impeachment.
— Terrell J. Starr (@Russian_Starr) July 8, 2017
Ivanka: I try to stay out of politics.
*Ivanka at the G20* pic.twitter.com/iHOi8wcSry
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) July 8, 2017
The tale of the dictator's daughter and her prince <– my warning about Ivanka and kleptocratic regimes from April https://t.co/FlaTsqvg3u
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) July 8, 2017
What an embarrassment for America https://t.co/P183Q9WSg8 pic.twitter.com/wfalG3CcrF
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) July 8, 2017
