Ivanka Trump
arrived in Berlin Tuesday morning
armed with facts and figures to recite at what was expected to be a
high-brow international summit to discuss women entrepreneurship,
alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But on her first international trip as an official
representative of the United States, the first daughter was put on the
spot about her father’s attitudes toward women, booed and hissed at by
the crowd, and grilled by the moderator about what, exactly, her role is
in President
Donald Trump’s administration.
“You’re the first daughter of the United States, and you’re also an
assistant to the president,” the moderator, WirtschaftsWoche
editor-in-chief Miriam Meckel, said.
“The German audience is not that
familiar with the concept of a first daughter. I’d like to ask you, what
is your role, and who are you representing, your father as president of
the United States, the American people, or your business?”
It was an aggressive opening for the first daughter, who was seated
next to Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International
Monetary Fund and one seat down from Merkel. Queen Maxima of the
Netherlands was also a participant on the W20 panel. And it appeared to
put her on the spot.
She did not define what her new role as a senior White House official
entailed, but said that she cared “very much about empowering women in
the workplace” and defined her goal as enacting “incremental positive
change. That is my goal. This is very early for me, I’m listening,
learning.”
But she was booed and hissed at by the majority-women audience at the
conference when she lauded her father for supporting paid leave
policies. “I’m very proud of my father’s advocacy,” she said, calling
him “a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to
thrive.”
Meckel, the moderator, pushed her to address the vocal disapproval from the audience.
“You hear the reaction from the audience,” she said. “I need to
address one more point — some attitudes toward women your father has
displayed might leave one questioning whether he’s such an empower-er
for women.”
She defended her father from her vantage point of loyal
daughter — a familiar crouch from when she was confronted by
uncomfortable questions about her father on the campaign.
A private meeting with Merkel, a privilege normally reserved for the
most senior foreign representatives, was not on Ivanka Trump’s agenda.
And despite the insistence of the White House that Ivanka Trump was
invited to attend the panel by Merkel in her role as a senior White
House official a German government spokesman also stressed that, contrary to reports
that Merkel had personally asked Ivanka Trump to attend the conference,
she was in fact invited by two women’s groups organizing the event.
“The Chancellor didn’t invite her,” spokesman Georg Streiter said
during a press briefing on Monday. Streiter added that after Merkel’s
“pleasant discussion” with Ivanka Trump in Washington, she signalled to
the organizers that she would welcome Ivanka Trump’s participation.
Read more: Ivanka Trump gets booed, hissed at during Berlin event – POLITI
