First daughter Ivanka Trump found herself in the hot seat, trying to explain to a group of the world's leading women that her father Donald Trump is doing good work for women. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Managing Director Christine Lagarde gave her a polite stare -- although Lagarde's facial expression -- and her 'my head hurts' gesture pictured above -- is one for the history books.

Fresh from Monday's Financial Times joint op-ed with World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, focused on empowering women in developing nations, Ivanka Trump faced an enlightened women reality check at the 3-day W20 Summit in Berlin. Hosted by Angela Merkel, Ivanka was invited after the White House West Wing placed her -- then with no official role in the administration, other than Presidential daughter -- next to the global powerhouse Merkel in a round-table discussion. Rather than sulk over the insult, Merkel extended a hand to Ivanka Trump. You want to play female empowerment? Come to Berlin.

Moments after taking her place beside Chancellor Angela Merkel and IMF Lagarde on a panel at the W20 summit, Trump found herself discussing her own motives for being there.

“You’re the First Daughter of the United States, and you’re also an assistant to the president,” the panel’s moderator, Wirtschaftswoche editor-in-chief Miriam Meckel, began. “The German audience is not that familiar with the concept of a First Daughter. I’d like to ask you, what is your role, and who are you representing, your father as president of the United States, the American people, or your business?”

“Certainly not the latter,” Trump replied. “I’m rather unfamiliar with this role as well … It has been a little under 100 days and it has just been a remarkable and incredible journey.”

Trump could not say precisely what her new job as a senior White House official entailed. She defined her goals as “empowering women in the workplace” and achieving “incremental positive change.” Speaking to an audience of largely women who have walked their talk in policy development in the face of fierce criticism around female empowerment, Ivanka found them not so totally interested in the Trump daughter's personal journey.

“I’m very proud of my father’s advocacy,” she said of the president’s official (but, so far, entirely passive) support for paid family leave, before calling her father “a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive.”

Limited boos and hisses ensued.

Generally, Chancellor Merkel has received high marks among Germans for cultivating a direct line to Trump -- who has said such negative words about her. But foreign minister of Germany Sigmar Gabriel articulated the mindset of many Germans and Europeans generally about why Ivanka Trump was at the W20 summit in the first place.

"There are things that are strange to me, for example the visit of his daughter to Germany which was treated almost like a world event.

This mix of politics with family and business smacks of nepotism and would be unimaginable here.

It always bothers me when members of a family, who have never been elected, show up suddenly as official state representatives and are treated almost as if they were members of a royal family,"he said."

Such candor is unusual in diplomatic circles. Gabriel's remarks were a way for him to differentiate his Social Democrats, who are currently coalition partners with the Christian Democrats lead by the chancellor. September elections are coming.

New Global Investment Fund

One unplanned development from the meeting was Chancellor Merkel's accidental revelation of a new global investment fund for female entrepreneurs that is connected to the Trump administration and the World Bank.

Dina Powell, President Trump's deputy national security adviser for strategy and senior counselor for economic initiatives, who was in attendance, said that the announcement was unplanned.

Speaking at a Thursday evening dinner in Washington, DC, welcoming the 2017 class of the Fortune US State Department Global Women's Mentoring Parntership, Powell explained that the announcement was premature, and the details will be forthcoming.

One wonders if Powell mentioned that the Trump administration's intention is not only to cut off all global funds for contraception and other forms of health assistance for poor women and families, but also to abolish the State Department's Global Women's Issues Office, a State Department office that fights for the rights of women all over the world and was created by Hillary Clinton in the earliest days of her tenure as Secretary of State. The Trump administration is on the record saying they have no interest in soft power. Note that many Republicans in the Senate support the office as a deterrent to terrorism, and it may well have its defenders.

Real Female Empowerment Starts With Family Planning, Then Microloans or Bigger Loans

We don't have the details yet of Melinda Gates' five-minute video addressing the group at 11:15 am Berlin time. AOC assumes that Melinda Gates spoke about the need for contraception in developing countries, given that she is adamantly campaigning against the Trump administration's total decimating of international women's health programs. The Trump administration is eliminating about $600 million worth of US federal funding for women's health clinics if they even mention the word abortion in countries where it is legal. Note, these clinics do not perform abortions; nor do they advocate for abortions. If a woman asks where she can obtain an abortion and they hand her a phone number, they are defunded under Trump's expanded Mexico City policy -- or global gag rule -- rules.

These clinics DO provide contraception services. Most in the Republican party in Congress -- not Republicans generally -- want contraception eliminated for all women, and certainly women in poor countries. As Melinda Gates says every day of her life, there is no more effective way to advance women in developing nations than to provide birth control.

For Ivanka Trump to speak of her father's empowerment of women in the shadow of this assault on women's health globally is more talk garbage than most dedicated feminists can stomach.

We do have the entire video of the April 25, 2017 panel featuring Ivanka Trump, Angela Merkel, Christine Lagarde, The Netherlands Queen Maxima and more from the women's summit.