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Ivanka Trump is not a feminist

Compared to her father, Ivanka Trump is a semi-decent human being.

She’s young, beautiful, well-spoken, stylish and carries herself with grace. She’s successful. She’s a wife and mother. And yes, as much as some may hate to admit it, she’s influential. She has the ear of her father, the President of the United States, more so, perhaps, than anyone else.

She has helped shape her father’s political image, his demeanor and even his policies. She’s his go-to advisor on just about everything. She is essentially a de-facto First Lady, yielding an unprecedented amount of  power with her dad.

And with that, she’s also a two-faced, complicit hypocrite who only cares about herself, her brand and her image. She is not, in any sense of the word, a feminist.

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She does not empower women; she allows them to be demeaned. She is completely blind to the plight of women in the United States and around the world.

Blinded by her superfluous privilege, Trump represents the worst kind of woman: a faux ally.

Let’s get one thing straight: Trump is not a “working mother.” Working mothers often work paycheck to paycheck, and they sacrifice like none other — do they pay for healthcare, or do they pay for field trips?

Trump has never had to sacrifice much, except maybe her privacy.

Most working mothers are middle to lower class, who didn’t attend college.

Trump was born with a golden spoon in her mouth, and yes, was handed quite a bit from her father: a paid college education, access to the family business and a working title, a name brand as famous as the Kennedys’, a portfolio of resources and an enormous inheritance she will eventually receive.

He’s now given her a plush West Wing office with a cop-out title of “Senior Advisor to the President” despite having no experience in national security.

Like Chelsea Clinton, she is a product of immense privilege and name brand that makes it virtually impossible for her to ever truly sympathize with women who have had to claw their way just to the middle – not even the top.

Now let’s back it up and take a broader look into the life of Trump, de-facto First Lady of the United States.

One of her “duties” is being a presence in the lives of working women in America and abroad.

That’s why Trump is slated to represent the United States by attending a women’s economic summit in Europe later this summer.

While there, perhaps she can talk about the abuses and impoverished conditions of the hundreds of women who work for slave wages in sweatshops making her tacky shoes and handbags, as reported by Us Magazine.

Oftentimes women are beaten, assaulted, threatened and intimidated by greedy profiteers. And because they are across the sea, Americans – including Trump – tend to overlook that.

While the Trump administration sought to completely defund Planned Parenthood, a lifeline for many lower income women and women of color, according to deathandtaxesmag.com, Trump went skiing at her plush Aspen getaway.

And while the Trump  administration immigration officers sought to pit mothers and their children against each other in the deportation process, Trump was nowhere to be found.

While trans women of color were being murdered and young black girls went missing in the D.C. suburbs, Trump was silent.

While her father’s health care bill was set to cut maternity and newborn care from insurance plans, Trump  — not once — stood up to defend mothers and their newborn babies.

When Trump administration’s preliminary budget sought to gut the grants and programs offered in the Violence Against Women Act, Ivanka was — surprise — mum.

Perhaps Trump can convince her father, and her husband, Jared Kushner, to end their business dealings in Saudi Arabia and China, where women are routinely beaten, raped, tortured and killed, all while being subjugated as second class citizens when not physically under attack.

If Hillary Clinton was held to this standard with her foundation, Trump needs to be held to the same one with her personal fortune.

Simply put: Trump is complicit with the sexism and lethal misogyny that oozes out of her father’s administration.

All these diplomatic exchanges, ceremonies and cabinet meetings she attends are for one reason and one reason only: she’s being groomed.

For what exactly we do not know. To be CEO of the Trump Organization? A Congressional run? A presidential run? Who knows.

But what we do know is that she is the worst example of feminism and female empowerment we’ve got.

We cannot allow her faux sense of female unity fool us — she’s just like her father deep down: selfish, succumbing to the politically orthodoxy of the GOP and a rank hypocrite. What makes her even more dangerous is the sweet, motherly persona she puts on to mask the fact that she doesn’t care about poor women, struggling mothers and abused women across the sea.

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