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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIvanka Is Just Donald Trump in a Shift Dress
They like to keep their business dealings in the shadows, theyre not really into apologies, and theyre nothing without their brands. Like daddy, like daughter.
ERIN GLORIA RYAN
09.27.17 9:00 PM ET
Ivanka Trump is a lot of things. Wife, mother, overenunciator, presidential softener. But also, Ivanka Trump is her father.
A casual observer could point out that Donald and Ivanka are very different people. But theyre both brands. Their cash crop is a curated version of themselves.
Ivanka, like her father, has nothing if she doesnt have her brand. Ivankas brand is soft, placid femininity, working hard in an all-white office all day and then coming home at night in time to post some Instagrams of her mothering her children, with the familys two nannies conveniently out of frame. Ivankas brand is women who work, who do some vague sort of work that doesnt involve getting dirty or lifting anything or going outside. Ivanka The Brand, a handful of lifestyle bloggers, and a newly lobotomized Megyn Kelly are all drifting toward the same vaguely empowered but not actually powerful feminine ideal, insistently pastel in an urgent world, whipped cream floating on a river of bullshit. Ivanka Trump is a stack of year-old womens magazines in the waiting room of a medical spa, to be thumbed through mindlessly, better if you dont think about it, while youre waiting to get botox. Ivanka is a champagne popsicle on Memorial Day.
Donald Trump is not soft, nor is he placid. But he is also a brand, and buying into it requires a similar mindlessness. His brand is loud, cartoon rich man from the 1980s, his disdainful Eastern European model wife in tow. Its saying what he feels, as though the act of having a feeling and refusing to temper it for public consumption is an act of patriotism, of morality. Trumps brand conflates a lack of self-control with bravery. While the commander in chief and his daughter may express themselves differently, below the surface theyre similar.
Beyond artifice, the similarities are plentiful.
This week, the AP reported that information about Ivanka Trumps line of clothing, accessories, and footwear for mid-income basics has quietly disappeared in recent monthswhich makes it difficult for watchdogs, or investors, or people concerned with whom a top-level presidential adviser is doing business with, to find out how far Ivanka Incs tentacles reach. This is a problem because most of Ivankas branded Ivankawear is made in China, a country with a fraught relationship with the U.S., a country that could exert sway over the personal finances Ivanka.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/ivanka-is-just-donald-trump-in-a-shift-dress
madaboutharry
(40,220 posts)"They're a gangster family."