Over the weekend, President Trump attended the G-20 summit in Japan. “Controversy” broke out when a video went viral of the President’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump having an awkward-appearing conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British Prime Minister Theresa May, and International Monetary Fund Chairwoman Christine Lagarde.
Despite her two years as a presidential adviser and her corporate experience before the White House, Morning Joe wasted no time labeling her rise to prominence in the Trump Administration as a sign of nepotism. On a Monday segment of the show, several panelists made condescending remarks about Ivanka being at the G-20.
First, NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt claimed that Ivanka’s presence diminishes America’s standing on the world stage and that she’s “trying to get a word in” with the “cool girls”:
KASIE HUNT: Pretty stunning visual quite frankly, Willie. I mean, I think it says a lot about where the president puts Ivanka's council in his own esteem. I mean, she has -- she walks into Oval Office meetings at will. She clearly has been elevated by him in this particular case. But that video that you showed, I mean, it's almost uncomfortable to watch. It's --
WILLIE GEIST: Yeah.
HUNT: -- It's like every teenager's worst nightmare where you're trying to get a word in edgewise with like the cooler girls and they're just ignoring you and I think that that also says a lot about how this administration relates to our allies and how they view what this president is doing.
Up next, Washington Post national political reporter Robert Costa suggested that Ivanka was nothing more than a part of President Trump’s “brand”:
It is new to have a senior White House official and family member playing that role. For years, the President has talked about Ivanka Trump as being the future of his business brand, and his business interests. Now, he sees her in part as part of the future of his political brand.
And finally, the discussion concluded with former Bush 43 White House aid Elise Jordan snarling that Ivanka is “not a professional” and “in completely over her head”:
I absolutely can't believe it. Having served around so many incredibly talented diplomats and government officials that she just gets to waltz up on the stage as if she's Secretary of State without any Senate confirmation process and has so much unadulterated power at her fingertips is really scary because she's not a professional and she's in completely over her head and you can see that from how other world leaders respond to her. And it's really sad and pitiful that the Trumps believe that nepotism on this great scale is acceptable for a country as great as this nation.
Since there’s no telling how much MSNBC would fawn over Chelsea Clinton if she had been standing by her father’s side on the world stage, it’s safe to assume that the media’s animus for the Trumps causes them to assume Ivanka's just an unqualified cool kid.
The full transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC's Morning Joe
07/01/2019
7:15 a.m. Eastern
WILLIE GEIST: That video and Lagarde’s stare straight ahead went viral over the weekend with some critics saying it exemplifies why the President’s daughter should not act as a diplomat in international politics. Over the course of the trip, Ivanka participated in several bilateral meetings and, as you can see, was on stage for a women's empowerment forum and standing right straight in the middle next to the President of the United States in the class photo of world leaders. The White House posted also a video of Ivanka giving a readout of a trilateral meeting between President Trump, Indian President Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Abe. Let's bring in now NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent the host of Kasie DC on MSNBC, Kasie Hunt and political reporter for the Washington Post, moderator of “Washington Week” on PBS and an MSNBC political analyst, Robert Costa. Good morning to you both. Kasie, I’ll start with you: Ivanka Trump has been at the President's side throughout this Presidency, but, perhaps over the last week, front and center more than we have ever seen her on the world stage and, again, standing in the middle of the class photo of world leaders.
KASIE HUNT: Pretty stunning visual quite frankly, Willie. I mean, I think it says a lot about where the president puts Ivanka's council in his own esteem. I mean, she has -- she walks into Oval Office meetings at will. She clearly has been elevated by him in this particular case. But that video that you showed, I mean, it's almost uncomfortable to watch. It's --
GEIST: Yeah.
HUNT: -- it's like every teenager's worst nightmare where you're trying to get a word in edgewise with like the cooler girls and they're just ignoring you and I think that that also says a lot about how this administration relates to our allies and how they view what this president is doing. I mean, we have talked a lot about North Korea and that's obviously an incredibly historic and important part of this. But think about what happened in the days leading up to that step into the DMZ. I mean, the President was joking around with Vladimir Putin about Russian meddling. He was shaking hands with MBS, who the world community has basically declared killed a Washington Post journalist and chopped him up into little pieces. He of course was meeting with president XI of China. This has been another example of where this president has been out on the world stage embracing traditional American adversaries as much as he has been talking with democracies. He seemed to misunderstand a question about western liberalism from Peter Baker of the New York Times. Instead of talking about the west, he was talking about liberals in San Francisco in an answer that I think a lot of us found really confusing. And I think the treatment that Ivanka got in that video, yes, we can joke about it, but I think it also underscores something much more serious.
GEIST: Yeah, Robert Costa, this seemed like something different over the last couple of weeks or the last week anyway at the G20 when they put the President's daughter out giving readouts of trilateral meetings. That's something new.
ROBERT COSTA: It is new to have a senior White House official and family member playing that role. For years, the President has talked about Ivanka Trump as being the future of his business brand, and his business interests. Now, he sees her in part as part of the future of his political brand. What's notable is that Ms. Trump has not shown an immense interest in embracing the President's nationalism on the world stage. She is very much, much more about engagement with these European leaders, building a rapport and the President has this hardline, abrasive style with his diplomacy that she has not shown any kind of affinity for in terms of her dealings with world leaders. Yet, the President believes that she could be the future, not only of the Trump Org, but of the Trump political brand. And he has even spoken to advisors privately and at times alluded to it publicly that, at a post like the U.N. Ambassador position in Turtle Bay, she could be in the running for that. He thought about maybe appointing her to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
GEIST: Elise, what do you think when you see these images of Ivanka front and center?
ELISE JORDAN: I absolutely can't believe it. Having served around so many incredibly talented diplomats and government officials that she just gets to waltz up on the stage as if she's Secretary of State without any Senate confirmation process and has so much unadulterated power at her fingertips is really scary because she's not a professional and she's in completely over her head and you can see that from how other world leaders respond to her. And it's really sad and pitiful that the Trumps believe that nepotism on this great scale is acceptable for a country as great as this nation.
