The First Daughter uses the media to claim a sense of humanity not seen in the Trump family, but the taint of cruelty extends to her as well.
July 20, 2019

It never fails.

A story will come out that perfectly elucidates the white nationalist and fascist-adjacent values of Donald Trump: the Muslim ban, "heartbeat" abortion bans, family separations, babies dying in cages on the border, "send her back" chants at congresswomen of color, et al.

The mainstream media will cover the story, feigning a slight shock that the dementia-addled racist in the Oval Office could be so overtly stupid and racist. And somewhere, buried deep in the 20th paragraph, there will be a little mention of First Daughter/Senior Adviser Ivanka Trump expressing some dismay that her daddy is such a terrible human being without actually being quoted as saying that her daddy is terrible human being. For example, this article in The Wall Street Journal, on Trump's attacks of the freshman congresswomen this week:

On Thursday morning, Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s daughter and White House adviser, expressed her displeasure to him about the “send her back” chant at his campaign rally the night before, White House officials said. A group of House Republicans, including members of leadership, also complained to Vice President Mike Pence about the chant at a breakfast meeting, White House and congressional officials said.

White House officials said they had been asking allies in Congress to hold off criticism of Mr. Trump’s tweets on Sunday, signaling that the president was going to walk back his social-media posts as soon as Monday. On Monday afternoon, Mr. Trump continued his attacks, but didn’t use the specific phrase that the women should “go back” to their countries. He considered that to be sufficient, according to one person familiar with the matter.

Let me clue you in on what's happening: Every time Donald Trump does something that any sentient person with a moral compass (which excludes the diehard MAGAts) finds objectionable, Ivanka Trump calls up reporters "on background" and makes sure they know that she tried to tell Daddy that he shouldn't say those quiet parts aloud, but he's an old man and whaddya goin' to do? She tries to personally distance herself from all those shockingly similar to the Weimar Republic tactics that give Stephen Miller a thrill, so that she doesn't get treated like a pariah at all those social events she loves.

That's it. She doesn't want to get Dershowitz'ed while rubbing elbows with other socialites, so she pretends that she "advises" her dad not to be the would-be dictator he aspires to. What Ivanka actually does in the White House is murky. She claims to be working on issues of "women's empowerment," although what that has to do with North Korea nuclear non-proliferation (her last most public appearance) is questionable. She's her daddy's adviser when it suits and then pretends to be uninvolved when it doesn't.

There was once a time when even if Trump was unable to succeed as a conscience-check on this White House, she wanted to seem like she was trying all the same. But as the events of recent weeks—her eagerness to participate in historic photo ops, her refusal to wade into things murkier—lay bare, even that pretense has dissolved. “Maybe she’s coming more to grips with the fact that she’s tied forever to everything that happens in there, and it’s not even worth trying to distance herself from it all anymore,” posited a second former senior White House official, who also requested anonymity.

And that is what I hope is the albatross around her neck for the rest of her empty life: She is a part of the worst administration in the history of the nation, for which it will take decades to repair the damage. And that her name will forever be tainted and cursed as the worst depths a person could sink to.

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