Ivanka performs appalling show of hypocrisy at White House human trafficking summit
This morning, an incredulous nation was treated to the deeply perverse sight of the First Daughter leading an event against human trafficking at a White House helmed by President Donald Trump.
The president signed an executive order creating a post on the Domestic Policy Council to directly oversee human trafficking in the United States, and will designate a $42 million budget increase to fund the anti-trafficking efforts.
But the soft and cold voice of Ivanka Trump dripped with sickening hypocrisy as she praised her father for being “relentless” in keeping human trafficking in check.
Add your name to tell the Senate: CONVICT DONALD TRUMP!
In typical Trumpian fashion, she failed to mention that the event had been boycotted by anti-trafficking organizations because the Trump administration’s policies actually aid human traffickers, not hinder them.
In particular, the policy of deporting migrants to Mexico before their immigration hearings has fueled a horrifying surge in kidnappings at the hands of Mexican cartels — not to mention the murders, rapes, and torture that the brigands inflict on vulnerable people abandoned in a land they have no connection to.
Add your name to tell McConnell to allow impeachment witnesses. We demand Trump get a fair trial!
57,000 people, including 16,000 children, have been sent to Mexico under the “Remain in Mexico policy.” At least 816 murders, rapes, and kidnappings have been documented amongst them, including 201 kidnappings or attempted kidnappings of children.
Nor did her remarks mention that her father’s modeling agency may have participated in trafficking women from Eastern Europe to work illegally in the United States. Upon arriving in the States, the models, some of whom were as young as 14, recount being hidden in appalling living conditions. “We’re herded into these small spaces. The apartment was like a sweatshop” recounted “Kate” to Mother Jones.
The truth of the matter is that Ivanka — who cooly claimed weeks that her father’s horrific child-separation policy wasn’t “part of her portfolio” — has nothing more than a superficial, passing concern for the victims of human trafficking, akin to the shallow and immediately discarded sympathy a bejeweled gala attendee feels for the abstract and far-removed victims of disease. Her father, a grotesque glutton for cruelty, regularly exploits the victims of human trafficking and uses them to demonize immigrants and advance his monstrous white supremacist agenda.
Watching a former sweatshop empress whose husband’s companies receive millions in investments from Saudi human traffickers praise her rapist father while ignoring that his administration delivers hundreds of innocent people into the hands of human traffickers gives new meaning to the phrase “banality of evil.”
Social media’s reaction was not pleasant.
Vanky basically has a black belt in human trafficking so the karate outfit is a nice touch. @IvankaTrump https://t.co/COmT6Y741F
— NoelCaslerComedy (@CaslerNoel) January 31, 2020
Is this where the White House reconnects all the children they separated from their parents along the border? or is that a later event https://t.co/3e4vMjaRbQ
— Dusty (@DustinGiebel) January 31, 2020
Day 1: "I feel so bad for all these illegal aliens, lets push policies that keep encouraging it and ignore those that will stop it."
Day 2: "We have so much human trafficking going on. Isn't it just heartbreaking? "#VirtueSignaling is no virtue at all. @IvankaTrump— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) January 31, 2020
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.