g20 summit

How Much Did Ivanka Embarrass Herself at the G20 Summit?

Ivanka Trump.
Ivanka Trump. Photo: DOMINIQUE JACOVIDES/AFP/Getty Images

The rumor that Ivanka Trump somehow thinks she has what it takes to one day be president has become even more believable, as she spent her weekend attempting to rub elbows with world leaders at the annual G20 summit in Osaka. It … didn’t go over so well.

In a now-viral video of the event, released by the French government, French president Emmanuel Macron, British prime minister Theresa May, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, and International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde — real world leaders — are shown having an indecipherable conversation. And there, hovering outside the circle, is Ivanka, who awkwardly attempts to butt into the conversation, uttering a line about something being “male-dominated.” One thing is clear: She certainly wasn’t a welcome participant.

As Ivanka spoke, Macron, who was standing next to the Trump administration’s most famous nepotism hire, slowly turned away. May, the next person to say something, ignored whatever words had left the First Daughter’s mouth and made a comment directed at Macron. Lagarde, throughout the exchange, made no attempt to conceal the perplexed, impatient look on her face.

As the video started to go viral, Democratic politicians, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Representative Eric Swalwell, raised the alarm over Ivanka’s presence at the G20 summit in the first place, and what that message sends to other world leaders. “It may be shocking to some, but being someone’s daughter actually isn’t a career qualification,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a viral tweet that garnered a defensive response from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In a similar vein, Swalwell tweeted, “The American people deserve to be represented by a qualified diplomat … not the President’s daughter.”

The recorded encounter wasn’t the only moment at the summit that featured an embarrassing appearance from Ivanka. At the event on women’s empowerment, Ivanka called on world leaders to empower women, insisting that her father’s administration had done so. Through the White House’s YouTube channel, Ivanka released a video in which she used the word productive multiple times to describe a meeting between Trump and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. She also, at the conclusion of the summit, joined her father to step into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to enter North Korea, which a former ambassador to Russia found especially alarming.

“Ivanka Trump is not on the National Security Council — she is not an adviser on the issues being discussed,” Michael McFaul told the New York Times.

Great. Cool. Nothing to be concerned about at all!

This post has been corrected and updated.

How Much Did Ivanka Embarrass Herself at the G20 Summit?