{"id":167556,"date":"2018-06-21T03:21:35","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T07:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=167556"},"modified":"2018-06-21T03:21:35","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T07:21:35","slug":"silent-no-more-ivanka-trump-thanks-father-for-border-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/06\/21\/silent-no-more-ivanka-trump-thanks-father-for-border-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Silent no more, Ivanka Trump thanks father for border action"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ivanka<\/a>
Ivanka Trump, the presidential adviser who has billed herself as a \u201cforce for good\u201d in the administration, remained silent for days as the firestorm over forced separations of migrant families consumed the White House. (Photo<\/a>: Ivanka Trump\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Ivanka\u00a0Trump, the presidential adviser who has billed herself as a \u201cforce for good\u201d in the administration, remained silent for days as the firestorm over forced separations of migrant families consumed the White House.<\/p>\n

In a closed-door meeting with Republicans late Tuesday, President Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0confided that his daughter urged him to find a solution. But despite days of heart-wrenching images of children being pulled from their immigrant parents, she stayed publicly quiet until\u00a0Trump\u00a0on Wednesday signed an executive order designed to keep families together.<\/p>\n

Then the first daughter tweeted, \u201cThank you ?POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border,\u201d and called on Congress to \u201cfind a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Ivanka\u00a0Trump’s conspicuous silence drew criticism as outrage mounted over the separations. And it wasn’t the first time that Ivanka\u00a0Trump, as well as her husband and fellow influential presidential adviser, Jared Kushner, had tried to fly under the radar during crisis and tumult in her father’s administration.<\/p>\n

Kushner has been in the Middle East working on the administration’s peace plan while cable news filled with emotional photos of children in cages and audio of kids crying for their parents at the Mexican border. And Ivanka\u00a0Trump\u00a0was in California this week, getting heckled on her way to a fundraiser for Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy.<\/p>\n

After\u00a0Trump’s Capitol Hill meeting, Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., said the president \u201cmentioned that his daughter Ivanka encouraged him to end this. And he said that he does recognize that it needs to end, that the images are painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he signed the executive order Wednesday,\u00a0Trump\u00a0stressed that he had heard from his daughter, saying, \u201cIvanka feels very strongly\u201d and \u201cI think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it. We don’t like to see families separated.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House spokesman Raj Shah said Ivanka\u00a0Trump\u00a0had made calls to congressional leaders, advocating for a fix. She was at a meeting Wednesday between\u00a0Trump\u00a0and lawmakers at the White House.<\/p>\n

Her prolonged silence was the latest example of the challenges and calculations faced by the first daughter as she seeks to promote a family-friendly agenda in an administration focused on hard-line immigration tactics and protectionist trade policies \u2014under a president whose comments on race, gender and inclusivity have drawn bipartisan rebukes.<\/p>\n

First lady Melania\u00a0Trump\u00a0weighed in more quickly, with her office issuing a statement over the weekend saying she \u201chates\u201d to see families separated at the border. On Wednesday, a White House official said she \u201chas been making her opinion known\u201d to her husband that he needs to do all he can to keep migrant families together.<\/p>\n

The mounting criticism mirrors the harsh spotlight on Ivanka\u00a0Trump\u00a0last summer for her silence after the deadly clash involving counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the time, the president pointedly refused to single out neo-Nazis and white supremacists, suggesting there was blame to be shared \u201con both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also stayed quiet when her father unleashed a brutal attack on MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski, questioning her intelligence and saying she was \u201cbleeding badly from a face-lift\u201d in a December encounter. At the time, Brzezinski and her co-host, Joe Scarborough, called on Ivanka\u00a0Trump\u00a0to condemn the remarks.<\/p>\n

Ivanka\u00a0Trump\u00a0was targeted recently by late-night comedian Samantha Bee over immigration policy, though Bee apologized for using a crude epithet to describe her.<\/p>\n

Last year, Ivanka\u00a0Trump\u00a0did offer strong words against Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, who was accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls during the late 1970s, when he was in his 30s. She told The Associated Press at the time: \u201cThere’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children. I’ve yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her father took office, Ivanka\u00a0Trump\u00a0said she aimed to \u201cbe a force for good and to make a positive impact\u201d in her White House role. Throughout her time in the administration, she has sought to position herself above the fray, arguing in interviews that her focus is on policy and that she is more effective working behind the scenes if she disagrees with her father.<\/p>\n

While liberal critics have expressed frustration that she has not done more to temper her father’s conservative agenda, Ivanka\u00a0Trump\u00a0has made clear that she sees limitations to her role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here with specific areas I could add value,\u201d she said last year in an AP interview. \u201cIn the areas I don’t agree, I state my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and her husband also got criticized by some in the West Wing for being absent during difficult moments; they were off on a ski vacation when the GOP’s health care plan collapsed last year.<\/p>\n

The crisis at the border has upended the White House, even as the president has told confidants he thinks being tough on immigration will be a winning issue for Republicans in this fall’s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Ivanka\u00a0Trump, the presidential adviser who has billed herself as a \u201cforce for good\u201d in the administration, remained silent …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":167564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157,16,17],"tags":[52065,13459,14087],"class_list":["post-167556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","category-news","category-news-w","tag-border-action","tag-ivanka-trump","tag-president-donald-trump","mauthors-catherine-lucey","mauthors-jonathan-lemire","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}