The banner photo on Ivanka Trump’s Twitter feed shows her holding a baby, tenderly nestled to her heart. But even as the president’s daughter visually projects the centrality of motherhood in her life, she’s being called to task for not speaking out publicly about the separation of immigrant children and parents at America’s borders.
The Democratic National Committee this week directly chastised Trump—a high-ranking advisor in her father’s administration—for remaining publicly quiet on the immigration debate despite her vow to serve as a voice for women and families.
“Children are being detained and separated from their families while senior administration official Ivanka Trump attends glamourous fundraisers for congressional Republicans,” the party said in a statement, referring to Trump’s Monday appearance with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
“Ivanka Trump claims to be an advocate for families in the Trump administration, yet she’s nowhere to be found while men, women, and children are suffering on the American border from this administration’s inhumane family-separation policy,” the DNC broadside continued.
Trump occupies a unique spot in U.S. politics: In addition to her official self-description, which leads off with “wife, mother, sister, daughter,” she was a critical presidential campaign surrogate who went on to take a formal job in the new family business of running the country as an advisor to POTUS for “economic empowerment, workforce development & entrepreneurship,” her bio reads. That positioning both opens her up to criticism on the issue at hand and begs a broader question: How much responsibility does (or should) she bear for her father’s words and actions?
When Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president in the summer of 2016, Ivanka was the much-anticipated opening act. Her duty was clear: To paint an empathetic picture of her dad—who’d slashed and burned his way through the primaries—as a man who cared about people, and about women in particular.
“Throughout my entire life, I have witnessed his empathy and generosity towards others, especially those who are suffering. It is just his way of being in your corner when you’re down,” she said from the podium at the Cleveland convention.
“As a mother myself, of three young children, I know how hard it is to work while raising a family. And I also know that I’m far more fortunate than most. American families need relief,” Trump said at the convention. “Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties, they should be the norm. Politicians talk about wage equality, but my father has made it a practice at his company throughout his entire career.”
Fast forwarding to the current day, Trump has eschewed public comment on the immigration crisis while other prominent women—notably including all five living first ladies—spoke out on the family separations.
Ivanka Trump’s public silence may be well reflective of a conscious choice to take up the searing issue of immigration enforcement with her father and individual lawmakers in private. GOP members of Congress told reporters the president on Tuesday night acknowledged speaking with his daughter about the impact of images showing detainees having their children wrested away from them. The White House subsequently confirmed to CNN that Trump had acted on her offer to speak directly to legislators on the topic.
When asked about the Democrats making an issue of Ivanka Trump’s absence from public discourse on one of the most intensely discussed—and highly unpopular—policies of the day, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told Glamour in emailed comments that “no one wants to see families separated at the border, which is why the Trump administration encourages Congress to fix the broken loopholes forcing these separations.”
“For her part, Ivanka Trump will not let the media’s negativity deter her tireless work for women and families both at home and around the world.”
McEneny additionally credited Trump for creating “a fund at the World Bank for aspiring female entrepreneurs,” playing a key role in increasing the child tax credit, and continuing “her push for paid family leave, to name a few of the many important initiatives in her portfolio.”
In the case of GOP lawmakers and hopefuls caught between a conservative (read: pro-Trump) primary electorate and Democratic efforts to topple Republicans in November’s midterms, speaking out is somewhat of a gamble. This month, incumbent Republican Alabama Rep. Martha Roby saw herself forced into a primary runoff—a result analysts have attributed to her vigorous rejection of Trump during his run for president and which other candidates may chalk up as a cautionary tale.
As to why more Republicans haven’t challenged the president more aggressively on the detainee issue, given public sentiment, “It’s really the timing,” a noted GOP strategist explained to Glamour: Republicans are focused not only on the separations, but the future of the legal status of immigrants claiming protections under the tenets of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program.
“That is a huge priority — not that these children are not a priority, but we have to get the president to stay on board with us to pass DACA, and then hopefully we’ll come out and start supporting the kids and their families,” the Republican said. “I’m sorry the kids aren’t getting the support that they probably deserve, but this is a strategy that we have to continue to implement through the week.”
And when it comes to Ivanka Trump, Anna Sampaio of Santa Clara University’s department of ethnic studies said critics are entirely justified in questioning why she has absented herself from the public arena at a time of national turmoil and whether she’s complicit, in part because she “has wrapped herself in the language of women’s rights, and by virtue of that she has gained a lot of political capital for herself, but also political cover for the Trump administration and the Republican Party generally.”
Trump’s actions deserve particular scrutiny, Sampaio continued, because the furor over immigration and the breaking up of families is “a clear moment” that represents “arguably one of the most important moments for women and children” since the president took office.
The president’s daughter may be taking heat for her dad’s behavior in some of the same ways First Lady Melania Trump has fielded criticism for what he chooses to do and how he acts.
But as for any pushback associated with Trump directly confronting her father, “This is a woman who’s got a lot of privilege and a lot of money and a lot of resources,” Sampaio said.
“I doubt she’s in a very precarious position.”
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