During an Axios interview on Thursday, Ivanka Trump said that she opposes the administration's practice of separating families at the border, agreeing with other staffers that it's a "a low point in the White House."
"That was a low point for me as well," said the White House senior advisor. "I feel very strongly about that, and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children. ... I think immigration is incredibly complex as a topic, illegal immigration is incredibly complicated."
Since the implementation of the zero-tolerance policy, families have been forcibly separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, spurring a humanitarian crisis with no end in sight. Many families remain apart with no clear path to reunification.
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Ivanka brought up the fact that she herself is the daughter of an immigrant as a way to connect herself to the issue; her mother Ivana, Donald's ex-wife, grew up in the Communist Czech Republic. However, she added (echoing her dad), "we are a country of laws."
"[W]e have to be very careful about incentivising behaviour that puts children at risk of being trafficked, at risk of entering this country with coyotes or making an incredibly dangerous journey alone. These are not easy issues, these are incredibly difficult issues and like the rest of the country, I experience them in a very emotional way," she said.
At the same Axios event, she also said she doesn't view the media as the "enemy of the people," as the president has repeatedly said, along with making other hostile remarks about journalists.
Ivanka has a history of using soothing rhetoric to appear as a moderating force in the White House. But ultimately, she's seen by many as an enabler of her father's most destructive policies. She may be expressing her disagreement now, but at the height of the family-separation crisis, she was attending a fundraiser for the GOP and making zero statements about the issue.
So yes, Ivanka "Moderating Force" Trump is back. But does it really matter?