Ivanka Trump has faced criticism for staying silent amid some of her father's most controversial moments, despite positioning herself as an advocate for women's rights and for families in America. But in a rare interview on Good Morning America on Friday morning, she essentially told people not to expect her to speak out against some of the administration’s more sexist policies because she's not "president of all women's issues" and it's not her job to share her opinion when it diverges from her father’s.
In the interview, Abby Huntsman asked Trump how she reconciled her support of certain women's empowerment initiatives with the White House’s decision to enact practices like the zero-tolerance program that led to the separation of thousands of families at the U.S. border. Many people had called Trump out because she wasn't more vocal, although months later she referred to it as a “low point.” Donald Trump also revealed to lawmakers that it was his daughter who encouraged him to sign an executive order to end the separations.
“My job as a member of this administration is not to share my viewpoint when they diverge,” she told Huntsman. “Subsequently, I was asked the question and I gave an answer. But my role in this regard is not to—is not ‘president of all women's issues’ or running all women’s issues across the United States government.”
She also said that when she does come forward, it‘s probably because people aren't listening in the White House. “I think that when you hear me start to speak publicly on an issue that’s active, it’s because my voice isn’t being heard privately,” she said.
Trump’s view of her job likely won’t sit well with her detractors, who noticed how forthcoming she was about her relationship to parenting and women’s rights back when her father was campaigning. Her repeated absence during polarizing debates, like the Christine Blasey Ford hearing and allegations of her father's sexual misconduct, also suggests that Trump frequently taps into her self-identified role as “wife, mother, sister, daughter” when it serves the administration—but not always when women and families actually need her to exert her influence.
Huntsman also asked Trump about the FBI’s probe into the administration’s involvement with Russia and wondered if she’s concerned about “anyone in your life that you love being involved.” Trump was uncharacteristically firm as she declared “no.”
“There’s nothing there, yet it’s created weeks and weeks and months of headlines,” she said. “So no, I have zero concern.”
