Guardian newspaper columnist Jessica Valenti on Thursday seemed to suggest that Ivanka Trump’s reported involvement in pushing her father to fight human trafficking was a cynical move to distract from the president rescinding Barack Obama’s policy on bathroom-access rights for transgender school children.
Conservative social-media watchdog Twitchy.com reported on the controversial remarks Thursday.
“Right on time, as Trump takes away protections for trans kids…” Ms. Valenti wrote Thursday morning, reacting to a tweet by Axios co-founder Mike Allen.
“We’re told that the sudden West Wing attention to human trafficking was driven by @IvankaTrump,” Mr. Allen tweeted, linking to a story at his upstart news site headlined, “Ivanka pushes the White House to focus on human trafficking.”
Ms. Valenti quickly followed up her dismissive tweet a minute later saying of the first daughter, “She wants to wash her father’s stink off her reputation and we absolutely cannot let her[.]”
But for her part, Ms. Trump — reported to have been a registered independent at the time of the New York state GOP primary last year — has long been seen as a voice advocating center-left policies first in her father’s campaign and now his administration.
In September, Mr. Trump’s campaign rolled out policy proposals on child care that reportedly was the product of Ms. Trump’s input. Ms. Trump similarly hinted at her father’s support for such policies months earlier at the Republican convention in Cleveland.
Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that Ms. Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, “helped kill a proposed executive order that would have scrapped Obama-era L.G.B.T. protections, according to people familiar with the issue.”
A search of Twitter reveals Ms. Valenti has hardly been shy in the past in her denunciations of Ms. Trump. “When Trump lies, it’s bombastic and obvious. What’s dangerous about Ivanka is that when she lies, you want to believe her,” she tweeted the evening of July 21, the night Ms. Trump addressed the Republican convention to introduce her father.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.