This weekend, Ivanka Trump — prized first daughter, presidential sounding board, sometime diplomat — managed to ignite the rage of the Internet by just doing her job.
Wait, what job is that exactly? Officially, the 37-year-old is a senior adviser to the president, who happens to be her dear old dad, Donald J. Trump. In practice, she seems to have unlimited responsibilities. And her “Where’s Waldo?” appearance at the 2019 G-20 summit in Japan — there she is smizing with Shinzo Abe! holding her own with Theresa May! saying stuff in front of Christine Lagarde! — was further evidence of just how far her sphere extends.
The nature of Ivanka’s job would be enough, in a normal profession, to drive an HR manager to tears. It’s not simply that she got her role through nepotism, explains Jennifer Lawless, professor of politics at the University of Virginia. It’s the fact that she now seems to have so much power with zero accountability: “She’s not secretary of state, but she’s acting like she has the same clout as Mike Pompeo. She is not a formal diplomat, but she’s the one having formal conversations.”
View the complete July 3 column by Helena Andrews-Dyer on The Washington Post website here.
