Ivanka Trump: It’s offensive & sexist to call me Donald Trump’s ‘surrogate wife’

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Ivanka Trump was profiled by the business magazine Fast Company, and the interview is… not good. It’s not that Ivanka says anything particularly bad, but that’s just it. Her father is an unhinged gaffe-machine and the personification of every vitriolic internet conspiracy, and Ivanka is the glossy, Stepford-Daughter-face of that. She’s normalizing his behavior and his words every time she treats her father as somehow legitimate. I don’t blame Ivanka for her father’s deplorableness but I do blame her for her part in promoting and normalizing him, I guess. You can read the full Fast Company piece here. The bulk of the interview took place before the p-ssy tape was released. Some highlights:

Her reaction to the p-ssy tape: “My father’s comments were clearly inappropriate and offensive and I’m glad that he acknowledged this fact with an immediate apology to my family and the American people.”

When she’s referred to as her father’s “surrogate wife”: “Which is deeply offensive. I feel that that’s a very sexist thing to say.”

She offers eight weeks of paid maternity leave at her company: “I do control my own business practices and that’s why I’ve chosen to offer an industry-leading eight weeks of paid leave, but obviously I can’t control the practices of everyone in the universe I do business with.”

She doesn’t like being called her father’s “advisor”: “I am a daughter and an executive who has worked alongside him.”

Her father’s support within the white supremacist community:
“In terms of what you just mentioned. I categorically reject any people within a community that espouses hatred toward anyone, and my father does and has as well, so this is not support that I would be comfortable with. And I couldn’t be comfortable with my father as president of this country if I thought that he could be comfortable with that type of support, and I know that he is not, that’s why he’s denounced it.”

Ivanka isn’t interested in being part of a Trump Administration: “No, I don’t intend to be part of the government.”

[From Fast Company]

I give props to Fast Company because if you read the full piece, you’ll see that they actually fact-check her on several issues involving her own business dealings and public statements, like how many lies she’s told around the issue of maternity leave. The big headline that the political sites are using is that Ivanka doesn’t want to work in a Trump Administration, which… sure, okay. If Trump did win the presidency (OMG) he would want Ivanka there though. To me, the biggest headline was Ivanka being “deeply offended” at the “sexism” of being referred to as her father’s surrogate wife. Like, THAT is what you think is sexist? Your dad has been sexually harassing and assaulting women for decades but no one should – correctly – refer to you as a “surrogate wife”?

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Photos courtesy of Fast Company.

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102 Responses to “Ivanka Trump: It’s offensive & sexist to call me Donald Trump’s ‘surrogate wife’”

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  1. anonymous says:

    Lol are you kidding me ? She has to be trolling us now

    • Who ARE These People? says:

      No kidding. Deluded.

    • Megan says:

      The poison apple doesn’t fall far from the crazy tree.

      • qw says:

        I remember when people used to say she was surprisingly normal cosidering who her father was. Turns out we just didn’t know her well enough. She’s just like him.

    • Melly says:

      Right?! Like imagine how pissed off she’d be if the interviewer said to her 1/10 of what her father had said about women just during this campaign.

    • Pandy says:

      Well she’s right. She’s not his surrogate wife but she will be FLOTUS!! It sure won’t be Melania and her Internet bullying pet cause. I guess it’s better than protection for escorts lol.

    • velourazure says:

      “I categorically reject any people … that espouse hatred toward anyone”

      So she categorically rejects her father?

  2. Nancy says:

    Maybe now she has just an inkling of what so many others feel when her father’s words bruise their souls with his critical, sarcastic and hateful comments. She is such a nasty woman…lol, truth hurts honey.

    • Melly says:

      Well if she feels uncomfortable, maybe she should find a different career. How about kindergarten teacher?

      • Pedro45 says:

        Melly wins the internet today. Brilliant.

      • Nancy says:

        Perfect Melly. Right out of the mouth of her asshat brother who is so much like his father it’s terrifying for the future. Stick to the hotels kids.

      • Christin says:

        His three eldest children will hopefully slink away into oblivion after Nov. 8. They’ll only be seen accompanying Dad to his numerous trials, which start by year-end.

  3. Cool Character says:

    Truth hurts eh

  4. als says:

    This hypocrisy and faux smart image that she is promoting is making her just as deplorable as her father.
    And there are other ways to influence the administration than being in the government.

    • Kate says:

      This. She is ridiculously smug. Just like her father, a little too try hard. “I’m an executive”. At a company daddy gave me.

    • Bess says:

      If you think Ivanka’s smug, you should see her husband, Jared Kushner. He’s also a trust fund kid and his daddy bought Jared’s way into Harvard and NYU Law.

      The boy genius is one of the masterminds behind inviting Bill Clinton’s accusers to the second debate and having them ambush him as he entered the debate area. He’s a rat like his father in law.

      • Kate says:

        Papa Kushner also went to jail for fraud and obstruction of justice. It’s hilarious how Ivanka and Jared are supposedly the adults in the room with this clown show of a campaign.

      • Rita says:

        Yeah, he’s a mini-Trump. Like Melania, looks like Ivanka married a copy of her father. Among other things, after Jared Kushner’s father got busted making illegal election-related donations, he hired a prostitute to try frame his brother-in-law and pressure his sister. He was prosecuted by Chris Christie actually, so that must make some Trump campaign meetings involving both Chris Christie and Jared a tad awkward.

      • qw says:

        The other Kushner jr, is dating Karlie Kloss. I wonder if he’s like the rest of his family?

  5. Miss E says:

    But she’s totally okay with her father calling her a piece of ass.

  6. huh says:

    “It’s a neat little trick you do: you move
    your lips, and your father’s voice comes
    out.”
    R. B.

  7. Kitten says:

    Is she even real? I feel like she’s some strange Fem Bot that the Trump campaign created in a laboratory, programmed to parrot Trump’s lies.

    I can’t believe there was a time when I defended her. SMDH

    Now she strikes me as a cold, soulless “product”, manufactured by her father to propagate and disseminate his f*cked up agenda.

    • Nancy says:

      She does seem fabricated Kitten. She has such a smugness to her. Lest us not forget who created her. She is now and always has been in his corner defending him, even saying it didn’t bother her that he called her a hot piece of ass. Children of other Presidents openly disagreed with their fathers, it’s as though she is one and the same as he or is in some sort of denial. If the fates are with us, after another 19 days, we won’t see or hear from her again.

    • Locke Lamora says:

      I think she’s psychologically messed up. You don’t grow up around a man like that and get out without bruises. She psychically changed herself to fit his idea of what a woman should look like, she’s his favourite and I think she values his validation above all else.

      • Original T.C. says:

        If she’s psychologically damaged then can’t you say the same for Donald’s sons whom he barely mentions? Yet his sons are not excused for their behavior but she as the favorite is? I think she is just like her Dad as are the boys.

    • LAK says:

      Me too Kitten.

      I read a piss-taking fictionalised account of Melania’s day with Donald which had snippets of Ivanka. Sadly, her real life self doesn’t seem so far off the fictional version.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/books/review/melania-trump-in-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-short-story.html?_r=0

    • Jayna says:

      @Kitten, spot on. My opinion of her has really done a 180.

      • Nasty Little Darling says:

        Yep. Any respect for her business acumen or seemingly good decision making process has flown out the window. She’s a walking hypocrite here, but I’ll give her 1% because she’s friends with Chelsea and Hillary seems to like her as well. But man her being his mouth piece is wearing on me.

      • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

        I subtract from Chelsea and Hillary for being her friend.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      She has no respect for fact, just like her father.

      “I categorically reject any people within a community that espouses hatred toward anyone, and my father does and has as well,”…”he’s denounced it.”

      Except he doesn’t. He gives supremacist podcasters press credentials at his rallies, has his son do live podcasts with supremacists from his rallies, retweets supremacist propaganda. He doesn’t reject or denounce white supremacists, he embraces them and their rhetoric and his campaign actively spreads their propaganda.

  8. Alleycat says:

    I don’t think it’s sexist, but she should find it disgusting, highly inappropriate and disturbing if her father or the public views her as a surrogate wife.

    • Melly says:

      I think what the interviewer meant was that Ivanka is fulfilling the typical role of the wife during the campaign. Melania hasn’t wanted to be on the campaign trail, so Ivanka has been the one who tries to “soften” the orange lunatic.

      • Radley says:

        Yes, that’s how I took it. Melania isn’t up to First Lady duties any more than the Not Great Pumpkin is up to being President. So Ivanka is the substitute.

        She looks good and gives good sound bites, but I don’t feel like she’s authentic. She’s a Trump™ brand FemBot. Still the gold standard. One of his other FemBots, Kellyanne Conway, looks at all times like she’s about to blow a fuse. And of course, the Melania model mostly stays on mute.

  9. Cinderella says:

    But it’s perfectly fine that her father agrees she is a “piece of ass?”

    Those silly Trumps.

  10. Who ARE These People? says:

    Trump denounced the KKK? News to me. News to all of us. She must know something we don’t. : (

    • Pedro45 says:

      Mike Pence was telling that lie too. Steve Bannon is an actual white supremacist. Trump and his family and his campaign reflexively lie about literally everything but HRC is considered less trustworthy? Sure, makes sense.

      • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

        Pence had offices registering black people to vote raided by cops. These are great people.

    • Melly says:

      Trump denounces all hate groups 😉
      And he doesn’t want their support 😉
      Who is David Duke? 😉
      What is the KKK? 😉
      Trump doesn’t want their support 😉

  11. MissMerry says:

    I feel like his entire family is freaking out that he’s in this spotlight. Like they knew how sh*tty he was all along, but never thought THEY would be called out on it and would HAVE to answer questions about it. Trump as a business person and celebrity, they could choose not to say anything, but now since he’s running for President, they can’t just NOT respond to questions anymore.

    and you know the only reason they’re doing it is because they’ve got their own skeletons and slime they don’t want revealed and they still want in on dad’s $$$$$, of course.

    • Kate says:

      “They still want in on dad’s $$$$$$$$ of course.” This is it, and it has always been it. They play along so that he doesn’t shut them out and they try as hard as they can to normalize them because they know he’s sending the brand down the toilet. Trump TV will be where they all go because the Trump luxury brand is pretty much done.

    • Christin says:

      It’s all about the brand. And I suspect its value is now to cater to the duck dynasty type crowd.

  12. Aiobhan Targaryen says:

    Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja. lmao lol.

    I was speaking about with my co-worker yesterday and her relationship with her father does make her seem like she has Stockholm syndrome and frustratingly oblivious to what is really going on right in front of her face. She and that whole family are just enablers or mindless idiots sitting around repeating different versions of what that garbage truck oozes out of his thin-lipped mouth. It is starting to get really sad to watch.

    I think Trump is so much more than a gaffe machine, though. Gary Johnson is a gaffe machine in a nutshell. Trump is doing everything on purpose to get a rise out of people. Trump is a spiteful, petty, unmitigated sexual predator and racist. He is the embodiment of mediocre white male who is only able to get away with everything he has done because of white male privilege and white supremacy.

  13. Little Darling says:

    Industry leading maternity leave?

    She is becoming a fancier unhinged version of her father these days in her interviews. She is incapable of hiding her contempt for any facts being checked and brought up when she’s interviewed. Actually, she’s intolerant of ANY line of questioning that challenges her control over the narrative. The Cosmo article was awesome as well, she basically hangs up on the interviewer after calling their normal questioning negative.

    • LT says:

      Eight weeks is nowhere close to “industry leading” – that is standard. 18 weeks, on the other hand? That happens – and THAT is industry leading.

      • swak says:

        Actually, where I live, 6 weeks is standard. But agree that 8 weeks is nothing.

      • Locke Lamora says:

        8 weeks is ridiculously small. In my country it’s a full year, 3 years for twins or a 3rd kid. Even women who are unemployed get a certain sum of money for 6 months.
        For such a rich country, America is incredibly insensitive towards its own citizens.

      • Little Darling says:

        @Swak so many companies think 6 is the “norm” ):. I don’t know where she thinks tacking on two weeks certainly is something to brag about.

        Honestly, it’s shameful that in US maternity leave is so bad compared to other countries!

    • zinjojo says:

      Yeah…Jezebel had a blog post earlier this week from an executive at Ivanka’s company about how the woman had to fight for maternity leave, and ultimately got the 8 weeks of paid leave — evidently Ivanka didn’t have any type of a policy because she doesn’t take maternity leave, so doesn’t understand why other women may want to. The article also pointed out that Ivanka has a massive amount of help, which is why she was able to take off just a week. So what she’s saying may be true now, but it wasn’t out of the goodness of her heart.

      • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

        This family sure likes to pat itself on the back for doing what they have been forced to do.

    • lala says:

      I snorted at that too. My company does 16 weeks paid, plus 2 weeks for dads. THAT is industry leading. I’m pregnant now and know how incredibly fortunate I am to get time like that. I hope the momentum keeps going to effect actual change when Hillary wins (I refuse to entertain the idea Trump will)

    • Jezi says:

      How nice of her to be forced to give her employees their well deserved medical leave. Only reason she’s offering it was because how can you stand with women and have no medical leave at your company. You offer 8 weeks but your daddies plan only offers 6 for the rest of the world.

    • TotallyBiased says:

      Did a little research, and it is ONLY the employees in her offices who recently managed to get those eight weeks (which, by the way, have been standard at clothing companies such as Patagonia for years.) The company that actually MAKES the clothes? Zero beyond FMLA-mandated unpaid leave.
      Daddy’s Trump-branded hotels? Claim to offer paid leave; in actuality none of the the Trump hotels in NY or Florida (including the Mar-a-Lago resort) offer paid leave.
      Now, the Clinton Foundation gives all employees twelve weeks paid leave. They are pikers, however, compared to Google (eighteen), PayPal (sixteen total for mom, eight additional for dad) and the big winner: the Gates Foundation, who offers a YEAR of paid leave to ensure bonding.
      So, yeah. What industry, exactly, is she leading?

  14. SusanneToo says:

    If the shoe fits….

  15. minx says:

    She got facial plastic surgery and huge implants. I’m sure she felt she had to conform to her father’s idea of what a woman should look like.

    • mayamae says:

      She’s not the only one. I was curious why Cheeto Jr.’s wife looks the way she does. I googled, and was shocked to see that when they first started dating, she was a beautiful brunette with small breasts and normal lips. She also seems to come from a wealthy family, so she could have done these procedures before Junior if she really wanted to.

  16. Arock says:

    I’m sorry, did she just wake up, is she for real. Do go on…tell us what you find sexist and offensive….

  17. PunkyMomma says:

    Slightly OT, but it deals with Ivanka —

    I was in TJMaxx yesterday and there it was — a rack of sweaters from the Ivanka Trupmp line — all with prominent labels “Made in China”. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

    • Original T.C. says:

      But you know if those belonged to Hillary, FLOTUS, or President Obama the media will bring it up over and over again as well as have news reporters sent to malls to talk to customers about the hypocrisy of a candidate pushing for US jobs while having their products made in China.

      The media has so much responsibility for the ascendancy of Trump that it’s sickening. The Washington Post and The New York Times appear to be the only outlets not sleeping on the job. The TV outlets are too busy counting their money from high ratings featuring Trump to care about women, minorities, Muslim-Americans, the disabled, etc. all who have been traumatized and harmed by the Trump campaign. Sickening. The bigots have been empowered to come out of the closet.

    • Christin says:

      I saw one of her line’s sweaters at Marshall’s last week and went straight to the tag. Same thing – Made in China.

      And it looked like a 15 dollar sweater you could buy at a discount store. Nothing to justify the original retail price.

  18. No1Here says:

    Both Melania and Ivanka have said that Cheeto apologized to them after the lewd comments, but last night Cheeto categorically denied apologizing to his family as he didn’t do anything wrong.

  19. Elise says:

    I don’t think Ivanka understands what “sexism” is any better than her father does.

  20. Lolo says:

    speaking of offensive and sexist: you father sucks, Ivanka

  21. ElleBee says:

    I know her last name is Trump but I’m still disappointed. She seemed decent initially but now she’s proven herself a silicone buffoon

  22. Incredulous says:

    I think Donald could take lessons from Ivanka on staying on-message but it still reads like the same Trump lies.

    In Trump’s America, maternity leave is spelled Maternity? LEAVE!

  23. Cee says:

    Is 8 week maternity leave that novel? What do women generally get in the US?
    Over here we get 3 months paid leave with an additional 3 months no-pay leave.

  24. HK9 says:

    So, she can dish it out but she can’t take it?

  25. Snarky says:

    Golden Child Syndrome.

    Narcisistic parents assign roles to their children. Naturally (narcissists being narcisists and all), these roles don’t match reality, but the inner workings of the narcissistic mind. The children are basically extensions of the narcissistic parent’s needs.

    The smartest, most caring and empathetic child, basically the one who will see through the bullshit no matter what and talk truth, becomes the family scapegoat. The child who can do no right, and who the narcissist blames for every wrong in the dysfunctional family. Other children will find excuses to never be home (Lost Children), or deflect the tension in the home through humor.

    And then there is the blessed Golden Child. The one the narcissist sees as a perfect extension of themself. The narcissist will groom the kid to be just like themselves no matter what, and constantly heap gifts and praise on them for modeling the parent. Of, course, the special treatment will disappear once kid develops their own spine and personality. They know it. That’s why they will always be the ones defending their sicko parents long after the other kids have washed their hands of them.

    Sound familiar?

  26. Lightpurple says:

    Was shopping in Lord &Taylor Saturday for something to wear to my high school reunion. Found a dress I thought would be perfect, in my price range, fantastic fit. Looked at the label when in the dressing room and returned it to the rack. She is NOT getting my money.

    • Mamunia says:

      Good for you! The only thing that will get through to any Trump is a loss of money. The people who support him cannot afford to go to a Trump hotel or golf course. Anyone who supports them financially in any way is a contributor to his hate mongering. Ivanka might not change her tune when her “brand” dries up, but she will notice when her bank account shrinks. Wow! Daddy really screwed us!

    • Nicole (the Cdn one) says:

      Totally agree. I actually have a few things from her line that I quite liked and always got compliments on when I wore them. Last week I cut the labels out of them and donated them to a charity that provides clothing for women re-entering the workforce. I could not bear to wear them myself anymore and I didn’t want anyone else to give her credit for them, but I didn’t want them to end up in the landfill, so that was my solution. No more money from me. Ever. Again.

  27. kodakay says:

    It’s also sexist and offensive for her you father to give Howard Stern permission to call her a “piece of ass” which is far more offensive, but that’s just me.

    She knows who her father is; she should knock off the modesty or whatever emotion she’s trying for.

  28. Josefina says:

    “That’s a very sexist thing to say”

    I’d truly love to hear what Ivanka’s definition of “sexist” is. We all know how her father speaks of women in front of cameras, so I can only imagine how he speaks of them in his own house. The fact she recognises sexism as something that actually exists is a little shocking to me.

  29. Yaylo says:

    In Sweden we have 480 days paid maternity leave that you can split between the two parents. Just two months sounds insane to me.

    • pinetree13 says:

      Right?! Here it’s a year but I’ve been part of the fight to get it changed to 18 months (which may or may not happen in the next few years, support was really high but then dipped when the economy started to tank).
      It literally gave me a pain in my heart reading one of the commentors above talking about how incredibly lucky she felt to get 16 weeks. Wow. I can’t imagine! Heart-breaking.

    • Kassie says:

      Seriously?! And who pay for the salary for those 480 days???

  30. Eric says:

    Trump is in lock step with the alt-right. If you’re not sure what exactly that is, look it up on youtube for some “information.”

  31. Joannie says:

    Shes his daughter. What is she supposed to say? My dad is a pig? He’s unfit to be president? Maybe that’s how she does feel but i dont think its fair to expect her to slag the guy in public. Its not like shes saying what he said or did is ok. Give her a break! I find it hard to believe the guy got as far as he did in this election. The american people should be looking at themselves and asking how the hell did this guy happen to get to where he is? Its a reflection of what’s going on in the US. Scary as hell!

  32. Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

    It was too long ago to remember details, but ages ago, long before this presidential nonsense started up, someone told me that she went to university with Ivanka, and that she was lazy, rude, showed up to class sporadically and didn’t really contribute anything to group projects. I never really bought the ‘Super-competent, intelligent business woman who works so much harder than you and schedules in her mommy time and is way more level-headed than her father’, persona and now my suspicions are even more solidly confirmed. She describes herself as ‘an executive’ which is vague as all get out and only sounds charming when Hyacinth Bucket uses the descriptor on Richard.

    • Josefina says:

      I went to college with lots of uber-rich kids and I can tell you it’s a pretty binary thing with them. They come in 2 flavors:
      – They take their “family name” seriously and do study real hard so they can hold the prestige associated it. There’s a lot of pressure on them to be as good as their relatives.
      – They see college as no more than a procedural thing. Daddy will get them a job as soon as they graduate, so it doesn’t really make a difference if they passed with honors or the bare minimum.

      The second case is more common.

      • leuce7 says:

        Personally, I’m kind of dying to know how families of flavor number 1 does it. I’ve met one or two of these also (rare, like unicorns), and they have impressive work ethics (and not just for rich people, just good, period). Which considering how easy it is to be flavor 2, makes me really want to know what their parents are doing.

      • Josefina says:

        It’s easy: They don’t spoil their kids. They teach them the value of independence and working for their own money. That money can go away overnight, but dilligence and responsibility stay with you forever.

        Flavor 2 kids are just spoiled brats period. They had everything handed to them as kids, and are still being handed everything as adults. They don’t know what effort is because they have never needed to put an effort into anything.

  33. Betsy says:

    I haven’t much to say, other than this woman is a frightful idiot.

  34. ol cranky says:

    until this article, I have not heard anyone refer to her as a “surrogate wife,” I’ve heard many references to her replacing Melania to play the traditional “wife” role in a campaign and her being referred to as a proxy or surrogate for the campaign. If someone referred to her as surrogate wife in the context of the role she’s played in the campaign (vs Melania), then she is willfully misinterpreting what was said to be able to play victim – just like her daddy

  35. naomipaige says:

    OMG! She’s finally offended by something.! I’m shocked. She didn’t care too much about the piece of a** comment her father said about her. Geez! This whole family is sick!!

  36. Marianne says:

    She’s right…but at the same time its also offensive (and totally gross) for your own father to say he would date you if you werent related and call you a “piece of ass”. But whatever…

  37. Riemc526 says:

    And yet she has no problems with him talking about her in a sexual way.

  38. Nibbi says:

    i used to have a kernel of respect for her or at least find her tolerable because she combined being strikingly beautiful (despite the troublingly large, out-of-proportion fake boobs; it always troubled me that she and melania have the same to-order rack…) with what seemed to be a certain measure of intelligence and class, like maybe private schooling and ivana’s influence had raised those kids right. man, have the masks been dropped. she now just seems like a gigantic, polished, evil-enabling hypocrite with an attitude problem to boot.