The global effort to flatter Ivanka

When asked, more specifically, how she advised him, she said, “It’s been an ongoing discussion I’ve had with my father most of my adult life, and we’re very aligned in many, many areas. And that’s why he’s encouraged me to fully lean into this opportunity and come into the White House and be by his side.” The implication was that nepotism was one of her father’s virtues, and proof of his good character.

There are people who believe this when it comes to President Trump’s elevation of Ivanka. But, as John Oliver noted in a recent segment on Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, there is no proof that she is benefitting anyone beyond her family. She is simply brilliant at giving the impression that she might be. For example, in Berlin, when NBC News asked her about admitting Syrian refugees to the United States, she said that it should be “part of the discussion, but that’s not going to be enough in and of itself.” The resulting headlines suggested that this constituted a break with her father. But how, exactly? Refugees are “part of the discussion” when he rails against them; and “not going to be enough” could just as easily refer to what the President sees as the need for “extreme vetting,” or letting in only Christians. She referred, for a second time, to the areas “in which I’m fully aligned with my father—which are many.” “Many” could mean anything, but, in practice, her duties as what Germany’s ZDF television news referred to as “Papas Pressesprecherin“—Daddy’s press secretary—are extremely broad. She wanted voters to know that he ought to be President, and now she wants the world to understand his greatness, too.

Foreign countries and companies might appreciate the idea that they can more easily handle Donald Trump if they lavish his daughter with attention; this is a common enough practice when dealing with authoritarian governments. But it should at least cause a little unease here at home.