Ivanka Trump said Thursday she doesn’t view the news media as the “enemy of the people.”
Mrs. Trump, President Trump’s eldest daughter and a senior adviser, was pressed on the issue at an event Thursday sponsored by Axios in Washington, D.C., where the website’s executive editor Mike Allen asked her toward the end of her appearance whether she thinks “we are the enemy of the people.”
“Sorry?” Mrs. Trump responded, prompting Mr. Allen to ask the question again.
“No, I do not,” she said, leaving an awkward silence that gave way to laughter from the audience.
“That is not a view that is shared in your family,” Mr. Allen said.
Pressed to elaborate, Mrs. Trump said she understands some of the scrutiny aimed at the press.
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“I’ve certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate, and so I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe — especially when they sort of feel targeted,” she said. “But no, I do not feel the media is the enemy of the people.”
Mr. Trump’s attacks on the news media got some extra attention following reports of a July 20 meeting at the White House in which A.G. Sulzberger, the new publisher of The New York Times, raised concerns about Mr. Trump’s “troubling anti-press rhetoric.”
“I told him that although the phrase ’fake news’ is untrue and harmful, I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists ’the enemy of the people,’ ” Mr. Sulzberger said in a statement after the off-the-record meeting became public.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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