The oldest first daughter jetted off to Germany this week for her first international trip representing the White House, joining female world leaders on a panel about women's entrepreneurship. But, it seems Germans aren't her biggest fans, since Ivanka Trump was booed in Berlin at the W20 Summit.
Trump, serving as an unpaid special assistant to the president, sat alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Queen Màxima of the Netherlands, International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde, and others Tuesday at the summit focused on women's workforce participation and equality.
It got off to a rocky start when the moderator, WirtschaftsWoche editor-in-chief Miriam Meckel, said: "You’re the first daughter of the United States, and you’re also an assistant to the president. The German audience is not that familiar with the concept of a first daughter." Politico reports Meckel then asked, "What is your role, and who are you representing, your father as president of the United States, the American people, or your business?"
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Trump responded in her usual vague way, saying, "Certainly not the latter. 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." She added that she cares "very much about empowering women in the workplace," giving no details about how she plans to do that.
Things got even more uncomfortable when Trump called the president "a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive" when talking about paid family leave, drawing actual boos and hisses from the mostly female crowd.
Ivanka Trump gets booed after praising her father's support of women during a panel in Germany https://t.co/luRHfe0Has pic.twitter.com/TjtrgJXRpi
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 25, 2017
The moderator pointed out the crowd's vocal reaction, telling Trump, "Some attitudes toward women your father has displayed might leave one questioning whether he’s such an empowerer for women."
The first daughter responded in true Trump fashion, blaming the media.
"I’ve certainly heard the criticism from the media that’s been perpetuated," she said. "I know from personal experience, and I think the thousands of women who have worked with and for my father for decades when he was in the private sector are a testament to his belief and solid conviction in the potential of women and their ability to do the job as well as any man."
Trump was invited to Germany by Chancellor Merkel, but apparently not everyone was happy to see her defending her father in Berlin.
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