Ivanka Trump went on CBS’ This Morning for an image-boosting talk with Gayle King. And yet, as gentle as the interview was, Trump still couldn’t come away looking that great.
She spoke about how she came to work in the White House, despite saying she definitely wasn’t going to do that—it “happened very organically,” which is … fine? Meaningless?—and about why she doesn’t speak out about the threats to the issues she claims to really care about, namely the “economic empowerment of women.”
Trump responded that she doesn’t think we should “conflate lack of public denouncement with silence,” and that she lets President Dad know what she thinks privately: “Where I disagree with my father, he knows it.” But if Ivanka is going to be working as an official advisor to the president, and touting herself as a champion for women as Trump works so hard to undermine our rights in every possible form, from healthcare to workplace harassment—well, we don’t owe her the benefit of any doubt.
We don’t know that her father “always listens,” and we don’t even know if she’s fighting for women to the degree she says she is, or if she has any interest at all (and it has long appeared she does not) in women of color, low-income women, or women in the LGBTQIA community. And if she’s not speaking out against Trump’s destructive actions, then she’s complicit in them.
You know what we mean by “complicit,” right? Okay, good, then maybe someone should fill Ivanka in. Because when King asked what she thought about being called complicit, it’s quite possible she doesn’t know what that word means.
If being complicit is wanting to … is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact, then I’m complicit. I don’t know that the critics who may say that of me, if they found themselves in this very unique and unprecedented situation that I am now in, would do any differently than I am doing.
I hope to make a positive impact. I don’t know what it means to be, um, complicit. But, you know, I hope time will prove that I have done a good job Ivanka Trump Admits She’s Complicit in Her Father’s Actions (Also Doesn’t Know What Complicit Means)…
First of all, no, I’m confident that many, if not all, of Ivanka’s biggest critics would not be proceeding as she has been. But most of us don’t have access to nepotistic benefits at this level, so maybe we’ll never know.
As for learning what words mean, the ever-helpful team over at Merriam-Webster are here to help her out.
📈’Complicit’ is trending after Ivanka Trump told CBS “I don’t know what it means to be complicit.” https://t.co/qE6UcB8pUz
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) April 4, 2017
They also pointed out that searches for the word (meaning “helping to commit a crime or do wrong in some way,” by the by) spiked back in March as well, after SNL imagined the name on a fragrance in Ivanka’s line. The word is becoming more and more linked to her name, and I can’t help but find some small happiness in that.
Of course, offering to help Trump the Younger out with definitions is presuming that she wants to understand the words she says. She seems to be doing just fine without taking the time to make sense, though, so The Daily Show is making suggestions for what they’ve dubbed the “Ivanktionary.”
#Ivanktionary pic.twitter.com/HgztSDvle7
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 5, 2017
#Ivanktionary pic.twitter.com/2vhbl1rubS
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 5, 2017
#Ivanktionary pic.twitter.com/SjZFvNrkPs
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 5, 2017
#Ivanktionary pic.twitter.com/YtdSpcqFQz
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 5, 2017
(via CBS, image: screengrab)
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