Donald Trump Accused Of Betraying Melania And Ivanka By Saying They Never Objected To ‘Send Her Back’ Chant
Donald Trump reportedly got some advice from the women closest to him that he needed to speak out against incendiary chants from his supporters, but now Donald is pushing back against those reports — and being accused of betraying his wife and daughter in doing so.
President Trump drew controversy this week when he tweeted that four Democratic congresswomen of color should go back to their “original” countries. Three of them had been born in the United States and the fourth, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, immigrated from Somalia and is a naturalized citizen. The controversy grew deeper when Trump laid into Omar at a campaign rally, prompting supporters to chant “Send her back!”
President Trump later disavowed the chant, and the New York Times reported that wife Melania and his oldest daughter, Ivanka, played a big role in that.
“Mr. Trump’s inner circle immediately appreciated the gravity of the rally scene and quickly urged him to repudiate the chant,” the report noted.
“Ms. Trump, his elder daughter and senior adviser, spoke to the president about it on Thursday morning, the people familiar with the discussions said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.”
President Trump has pushed back against that report by saying it was “fake news” that the women in his life advised him to disavow the chant. As Mediaite noted, Trump appeared to be turning his back on Melania and Ivanka and quashing the efforts at some unnamed members of his administration to get them some good PR.
Some members of the press had openly accused the White House of pushing out statements noting that Melania and Ivanka spoke out against the chants as a way to make them look better.
Why even cover this? They are unyielding supporters. Ivanka works for his administration. These statements are just fed to the press because they’re both realizing how badly their own “brands” are being damaged by their endless enabling of a racist bigot. https://t.co/zKdEDWCb7n
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) July 19, 2019
Donald Trump’s statement also stopped any chance of deflecting blame from his daughter, who serves as a top White House adviser. Many had taken aim this week at Ivanka, accusing her of not stepping in to rein in her father’s racist statements. CNN’s Anderson Cooper was critical of Ivanka this week, with White House correspondent Elaina Plott wondering why she was not willing to go on the record and register her disagreement with the chants. Plott noted that Ivanka was an important addition to Trump’s campaign, being used to help ease the minds of moderates who were put off by Donald Trump’s more outlandish statements and divisive actions. Ivanka was put forward as a check on her father who could use her influence to push him back from the more divisive actions of his administration.
Ivanka Trump also came under fire for not speaking out against the Trump administration’s policy of taking migrant children from their parents and placing them into detention centers.
