The Media Goes Deeper And Deeper Into Ivanka Trump; Zembla Looks At Jared, Ivanka & Lev Leviev

The People's Princess

By Caitlin Flanagan

Writing for New York Magazine's current cover story, Caitlin Flanagan shares an insightful view with analysis of Ivanka's childhood, her extraordinary attachment to her father -- and he to her, and the utter loathing that Progressive, Democratic and even Independent women are feeling for Ivanka these days.

Ivanka is now in Saudi Arabia, where she met with women leaders this afternoon. Surely the Trump daughter is shaking over the announcement that the FBI and now Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between the Trump Administration involves a person of interest in Trump's inner circle. Most pundits point to Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner and his previously unreported meetings with sanctioned Russian bank Vnesheconombank. 

Equally interesting -- and an association that involves Ivanka and Jared both -- are the couple's ties to the King of Diamonds -- notably of blood diamonds -- Russian billionaire Lev Leviev.

Part 1 of the Zembla investigation is explosive in its allegations about Trump. Part 2 is clearly still in development. 

Previously accepted in New York by Democratic progressives, the pummeling she's getting in New York -- where Manhattan voters voted against daddy nine to one; and DC where voters rejected Trump by 23 to one -- has caught the First Daughter off guard, much as her father is truly shocked from all reports, that Dems have a big problem with daddy firing the FBI Director James Comey.

Flanagan draws comparisons between Ivanka and Diana as "the people's princess".

"Diana, it was decided, in a brilliant phrase coined almost on the spot by Tony Blair, the morning after she was killed, was “the people’s princess.” Ivanka is a different kind of people’s princess. She wears couture gowns of staggering cost, but she sells shoes that a bank teller can afford on a splurge. Like many of her fans — and like Diana — she is the daughter of a messy divorce, but she has found a way to rewrite that unlovely story into one of unbroken father-daughter devotion. She admits occasionally to the reality of skillful nannies, but she sends out pictures and videos of herself with her adorable kids so you know that she’s a mom, one of us. She advances the kind of Spanx feminism that crosses the political divide and that can unite even the pro-choice and the pro-life: feminism as a fashion to be worn, as a consumer need that should be met by a canny entrepreneur, as the belief that a woman really can do anything because all that is required is the right attitude and the right giant handbag. She has probably never in her life had to visit a Planned Parenthood or sit on a phone for hours fighting with a health-insurance company, never lived in the income bracket that won’t be much helped by her proposed child-care tax credit — nor would her fans want her to have experienced any of these things. They haven’t fallen in love with a nobody, after all.

Like a princess, Ivanka devotes herself to the needs of a waning king. He is Lear — “All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience” — but Lear with only one relevant daughter, and to her has fallen the task of keeping his terrifying impatience from destroying not just their shared empire but the world itself. He is strangely dependent on her now. And so are we."

Smart Women Across America Are Asking: 'Where Is Ivanka When We Need Her?'

"The flaws in Ivanka Trump's feminism are, by now, well known, writes Sady Doyle for Elle.

The flaws in Ivanka Trump's feminism are, by now, well known. Any liberal woman under 35 could probably rattle off the list in her sleep: Her "parental leave" plan didn't provide enough parental leave. Her child care plan didn't actually cover the cost of child care. Her #WomenWhoWork campaign is an ad for dresses and handbags; her dresses and handbags are made at facilities that exploit female workers; her "feminist advocate" stance belies her role in an administration that actively seeks to strip funding and rights from women, and her choice to take a role in that administration (besides being a land mine for nepotism charges, the president is, y'know, her Dad) has enabled her to profit off the presidency.

The insults to Ivanka Trump are piling up in trailerloads. Sady Doyle's is one of countless, incredulous, scathing reviews of the pink frosted cupcakes baked from the wisdom of other people that America's First Daughter calls a book for working women. There is near-unanimous agreement that Ivanka Trump has a unique idea about the very word 'working'.  It's not the one that over 100 million of the rest of us relate to. 

One wonders if Ivanka isn't actually doing more damage than good with this book, even if the proceeds are going to charity. Personally, I thought Ivanka was smarter than the Stepford wife she projects in 'Women Who Work'.  Her prolific use of people's quotations, taking them out of context and giving them revised life through an Ivanka-envisioned hastag, implies a certain sympatico with her -- one that more often than not, doesn't exist at all. Ivanka Trump is smelling the roses in Hillary country, leaving many people not amused. 

When Ivanka takes Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' and its reflections on both freedom from physical slavery and a psychological prison living in the mind of its main character Sethe and applies it to the lives of well-off, working white women, our aggravation is beyond exasperation. She sounds like a heartless, clueless airhead -- or more like her father than we want to believe. 

As Gail Collins wrote in her New York Times column this weekend: 'Where's Ivanka When We Need Her?' This is our real world:

The reproductive rights war is always promoted publicly as a battle against abortion. But many religious conservatives hate birth control in general. Some just want to stop sex outside of marriage. Some don’t believe even married couples should use artificial methods like pills or condoms. Some believe that all fertilized eggs are humans and that many forms of contraception, from IUDs to morning-after pills, cause the equivalent of murder. It’s a theological principle that most Americans don’t accept. “Personhood” amendments giving the eggs constitutional rights have been defeated even in very conservative states.

Frankly, we don't care that Ivanka Trump didn't get her massages during the presidential campaign. The sky is falling on women's rights in this country, and this blond bombshell is redefining slavery for rich, white women with nannies. This is gross, frankly. Truly gross.

Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Girls Who Code tweeted at Ivanka Trump gelling her not to feature her story in 'Women Who Work' unless she is "going to stop being #complicit."

For a much more In-Depth look at Ivanka's new book, read AOC's: Hard Work Is All That Is Required, Says Ivanka Trump In A Book Drowning In Bad Reviews. 

Progressive NYC Chef Angela Dimayuga Shuts Down IvankaTrump.com Interview Request

Angela Dimayuga, executive chef at New York City’s Mission Chinese Food, publicly responded to a request for an interview on the IvankaTrump.com website with an emphatic 'no, thanks.' 

The chef noted that she could not differentiate between the brand and President Trump, writing: “So long as the name Trump is involved, it is political.”

Read Dimayuga’s response in full below, via Forward:

Thank you for thinking of me. I’m glad you are a fan of my work so much that you want to provide more visibility for my career to inspire “other working women.” However, I’m for women who actually empower other women.

I don’t believe that IvankaTrump.com is truly “a non-political platform of empowerment for [women]”. So long as the name Trump is involved, it is political and frankly, an option for the IvankaTrump.com business to make a profit.

I don’t see anything empowering about defunding Planned Parenthood, barring asylum from women refugees, rolling back safeguards for equal pay, and treating POC/LGBT and the communities that support these groups like second class citizens.

As a queer person of color and daughter of immigrant parents I am not interested in being profiled as an aspirational figure for those that support a brand and a President that slyly disparages female empowerment. Sharing my story with a brand and family that silences our same voices is futile.

Thank you for the consideration.