Ivanka Trump told Cosmopolitan magazine that it should “keep the focus” on advocating change instead of partisan politics following a heated interview about her father’s maternity leave policy.
“Politics aside, I’m working to raise awareness on issues that are of critical importance to American women and families,” Mrs. Trump, the 34-year-old daughter of Donald Trump, tweeted Thursday afternoon.
“Regardless of who you support, policies benefiting women+families are becoming topics of mainstream conversation & that’s a good thing,” the mother of three wrote. “@Cosmopolitan, your readers do & should care about issues impacting women & children. Keep the focus where it belongs—advocating change.”
Mrs. Trump’s tweets followed a contentious interview published Wednesday, in which Mrs. Trump accused interviewer Prachi Gupta of having “a lot of negativity” in her questioning.
Ms. Gupta repeatedly pressed Mrs. Trump on why the Republican presidential nominee’s policy did not include paternity leave for fathers or gay men who choose to adopt.
“There’s tremendous benefit here to enabling the mother to recover after childbirth,” Mrs. Trump responded. “It’s critical for the health of the mother. It’s critical for bonding with the child, and that was a top focus of this plan.”
She added that the “original intention of the plan is to help mothers in recovery in the immediate aftermath of childbirth.”
Ms. Gupta replied, “So I just want to be clear that, for same-sex adoption, where the two parents are both men, they would not be receiving special leave for that because they don’t need to recover or anything?”
“Well, those are your words, not mine,” Mrs. Trump said with a laugh. “Those are your words. The plan, right now, is focusing on mothers, whether they be in same-sex marriages or not.”
Ms. Gupta responded, “OK, I just wanted to make sure I understood. In 2004, Donald Trump said that pregnancy is an inconvenient thing for a business. It’s surprising to see this policy from him today. Can you talk a little bit about those comments, and perhaps what has changed?”
Mrs. Trump didn’t take kindly to the question, calling it an “unfair characterization” of Mr. Trump’s record.
“So I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions, and I think my father has put forth a very comprehensive and really revolutionary plan to deal with a lot of issues,” she said. “So I don’t know how useful it is to spend too much time with you on this if you’re going to make a comment like that. My father obviously has a track record of decades of employing women at every level of his company, and supporting women, and supporting them in their professional capacity, and enabling them to thrive outside of the office and within. To imply otherwise is an unfair characterization of his track record and his support of professional women.”
“I hope that, regardless of what your political viewpoint is, this should be celebrated,” she added.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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