Elizabeth Spiers: Ivanka Trump wants power with no accountability

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Ivanka Trump wants power with no accountability

The only Trump administration job she's qualified for is daughter.

By Elizabeth Spiers February 27 at 9:37 AM
Elizabeth Spiers is the chief executive of the Insurrection, a progressive digital messaging firm.

Ivanka Trump stopped in PyeongChang, South Korea, over the weekend to cheer for U.S. Olympic teams and sell South Korean officials on the Trump administration’s attempts to put “maximum pressure” on North Korea’s nuclear program.

If that second mission seems like a strange one for someone with no experience in government, that’s nothing new. Ivanka Trump’s visit to the Olympics underscored the way she’s been operating since her father’s election: When there’s something to be gained by posing as a White House adviser, she demands that people take her seriously. But when taking her seriously means holding her responsible in the way you would a senior policy official, then she’s just a daughter, vulnerable and helpless, obligated by family loyalty to take the president’s side.

Ivanka Trump’s blurred sense of accountability was particularly evident during an interview with NBC’s Peter Alexander tied to the closing ceremonies on Sunday. Asked whether she believed the 19 women who have accused Trump of sexual assault, Ivanka declared the question was “a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter … if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated there’s no truth to it.” She leaned hard on the word “inappropriate,” as if emphasizing it would make Alexander apologize and move on. “I know my father,” she said. “So I think I have that right as a daughter to believe my father.”

As an adviser, Ivanka has traveled the globe (on taxpayer dime, no less) claiming to be an advocate for women’s rights and speaking on behalf of the country. Whether the president — who aside from being her father, is also her boss — is obviously relevant for an administration that just this month dismissed senior aide Rob Porter over reports that he allegedly abused his ex-wives. It’s an obvious question for any senior White House adviser. But Ivanka Trump wants to put it off limits because the president is her dad. She acts like a sort of ersatz first lady, while Trump’s actual wife, Melania Trump, occupies more of a seen-and-not-heard role usually relegated to children. Ivanka Trump is the president’s visible right-hand woman, and she stands by her man no matter what.

“Because the president is her dad” is, of course, also the only reason she has a job as a senior White House adviser in the first place. ...

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/02/27/ivanka-trump-wants-power-with-no-accountability/

[chuckstevens]

1. So does 99 % of the GOP!

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. Let's imagine a time when Ivanka Trump applies for a White House staff position...

when someone else other than her father is president.

Eh, Ms. Trump? What exactly are your qualifications for this position? How does your education and experience relate to the position for which you are applying? Please explain in a concise and accurate manner.

The fact of the matter is that Ivanka couldn't get hired as kitchen staff in the White House, no less a "senior advisory" position, and an international diplomat who nonetheless cannot gain a full security clearance. This is madness, unfolding right before our eyes. And all we can do is watch in horror.

Trumpy himself has no ability to rationally assess his daughter's capacity for the jobs he's given her. He's all emotion, no reasoning ability beyond the developmental stage of a six year old. Observed from a clinical distance, the first suspicion anyone will have is that Trumpy is in an early stage of Alzheimer's. Dementia patients affected by Alzheimer's symptoms heavily rely on emotionally-based communications because they lost access to higher level rational thinking. They can be very convincing in their ability to mask their substantial deficiencies. They'll do anything to hide the fact that they can no longer reason, no longer remember how to reason. That's how Trumpy rolls. Watch him. Listen to what he says from a cognitive capacity perspective. The conclusion is impossible to avoid.

What compounds the problem of having an Alzheimer's victim in the White House is the GOP's extraordinary commitment to follow the every word and edict that comes from an Alzheimer's-altered brain. It's the singular most irresponsible and outrageous commitment imaginable, and should render the GOP as summarily unqualified to operate as a political party. They are following the leadership of a person who cannot think beyond his own needs, his own shrinking world. Yet they will follow him into oblivion. Amazing and tragic.