It seems to be tongue-bathe-a-Trump day at the New York Times, from the attempt to put Donald at Nancy Pelosi’s level as a political negotiator to the characterization of his desire to hang out with Kim Jong-un and Rodrigo Duterte as “unorthodox overtures” rather than “attraction to dictators separate from foreign policy priorities because he’s personally impressed by dictators” to yet another damn puff piece on Ivanka Trump.
Ivanka believes—and so this sympathetic piece reflects the view—that her successes should be seen as independent of her father’s money and fame and that, no matter how closely she works with him, his behavior should in no way reflect on her. “I’m really, really trying to learn,” she’s quoted saying, and the message comes through loud and clear: we should all let her learn rather than asking why nepotism has been allowed to make someone with no experience or expertise one of the most influential people in the White House.
“Suddenly, after my father declared his candidacy, it became that all the things that I was doing that I was praised for, the same people, the critics, viewed them through this different lens,” she said. “Somehow, all the same things they applauded me for as a millennial, as a female entrepreneur, were now viewed very cynically as opportunistic.”
Gosh, can you imagine? She went from being a niche brand dealing in mass-market fashion and hotels only a few people would ever stay in to being one of the most powerful influences on one of the most powerful people in the world, and somehow people’s views of her shifted. It’s kind of like how a decent pick-up basketball player might look different on the courts of the NBA. Actually, it’s more than that. It’s not just the quality of the competition or the level of the game. It’s like how a decent pick-up basketball player might look different in an Olympic figure skating competition, because selling dresses and hotel rooms is not even the same type of thing as being one of the president’s top advisers.
But she’s trying! She’s really, really trying! And she’s a rich pretty white woman who knows her place as subordinate to the powerful man who made her famous, so our culture tells us she deserves the benefit of the doubt at all times.