Ivanka Trump's activity at the G-20 is raising eyebrows

Ivanka Trump has differing ideas on what it means to be involved in politics

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published July 10, 2017 10:49AM (EDT)

Ivanka Trump   (AP/Markus Schreiber)
Ivanka Trump (AP/Markus Schreiber)

President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, says she has distanced herself from politics, but the key White House adviser played a pretty big role during  this weekend's G-20 summit.

Trump was seen sitting in her father's seat during a Saturday working session entitled, "Partnership with Africa, Migration and Health," sitting alongside British Prime Minister Theresa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel located one seat away. Trump also raised $325 million for the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, a project she is spearheading with donations from Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

This seems to contradict Ivanka's previous reassurances that "I try to stay out of politics. His [her father's] political instincts are phenomenal. He did something that no one could have imagined he’d be able to accomplish."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel brushed off the criticisms of Ivanka, with Reuters reporting her saying that "the delegations decide who will sit at the table if the president isn’t there, which can happen from time to time. And Ivanka belongs to the U.S. delegation. It’s well known that she works in the White House and is responsible for several initiatives."

Donald Trump Jr. jumped to his sister's defense with a somewhat more spurious argument.

So did the president

 


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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