Ivanka Trump booed in Berlin for praising father

Ivanka Trump wants to help women in her new role assisting her father, US President Donald Trump, but says the role is still being defined.

US President Donald J. Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump (L), Managing Director of the IIMF Christine Lagarde (C), and German Chancellor Angela Merkel

US President Donald J. Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump (L), Managing Director of the IIMF Christine Lagarde (C), and German Chancellor Angela Merkel Source: AAP

Ivanka Trump has been booed in Berlin after she described her father Donald as a "tremendous champion of supporting families" and says she's still fine-tuning her role as first daughter and informal White House adviser.

Trump, 35, who is seen as an increasingly important influence on her father, told a women's summit organised by the Group of 20 major economies in the German capital that she wanted to use her influence to help empower women.

Asked whether she represented the president, the American people or her business as first daughter, she replied: "Well certainly not the latter, and I am rather unfamiliar with this role ... it has been a little under 100 days but it has just been a remarkable and incredible journey."
Ivanka Trump's appointment as an adviser, with access to classified information, was highly unusual for the daughter of a president. Seeking to allay ethics concerns, she said last month she would serve in the White House in an unpaid, informal role.

In Berlin, she discussed support for women entrepreneurs with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde among others.

"I'm listening, I'm learning, I'm defining the ways in which I think that I'll be able to have impact," she told the panel discussion.

But the audience was unsympathetic when she called her father a "tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive", with the moderator moving the discussion on amid a chorus of boos.
Donald Trump found himself at the centre of a furious controversy during the presidential campaign when a video surfaced in which he boasted about grabbing women's genitals.

Asked whether some of the attitudes expressed by her father raised questions over his commitment to empowering women, Ivanka Trump said her experience and that of thousands of women who had worked for him showed he believed in women's potential.

During the Berlin discussion, Donald Trump tweeted a link to a Financial Times editorial Ivanka co-authored with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on investment in women and said he was "proud" of his daughter for "her leadership on these important issues".

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2 min read
Published 26 April 2017 6:00am
Updated 26 April 2017 12:54pm
Source: AAP


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