Republican delegates at national convention praise potential first daughter for showing softer side of Donald Trump and appealing to female voters
Republican delegates rushed to praise Ivanka Trump after the possible future first daughter of the United States took the stage in Cleveland on Thursday night with a poised speech that praised her father and attempted to build bridges to the female voters he seems to repel.
We love you Ivanka! a male voice from the floor cried as the 34-year-old businesswoman and former model stepped up to the GOP convention podium at the Quicken Loans arena.
Thank you, she replied regally.
I think shes amazing, Wisconsin delegate Kathy Kiernan told the Associated Press. I think that looking at his children and how great they all are and how much they all love their father tells you a lot about the man as a parent. I think shes one of his best assets.
Ivankas speech before her fathers 75-minute address to the hall was the high point of the convention for me, said California delegate Shawn Steel. He does the blue collar, she does the millennials. Its a powerful combination. This woman, Ive been saying for some time, is the greatest asset Donald Trump has.
She is showing the softer side of Trump, said Chris Herrod, state director for former Trump rival Ted Cruz in Utah. She hit the gender pay issue which is very important. And she talked about the family. I think shes done very, very well.
He told Reuters hers was one of the best speeches if not the best speech tonight.
She gave us enormous insight into him and the kind of man he is, said Fernando C deBaca, a 78-year-old New Mexico delegate. Shes [an] enormously capable young lady, as is her brother. Were going to see the beginning of a dynasty here.
Ivankas star turn in Cleveland was one of the top trending topics on Twitter late on Thursday, Reuters reported, with about 121 tweets mentioning her name posted every minute. One man, a Republican delegate in Cleveland, carried a placard all week around the convention that read: Ivanka 2024. First female president.
Ivanka was incredible last night, Donald Trump said at a press conference on Friday morning.
But not everyone was so bowled over. The estate of former Beatle George Harrison complained about the use of his song Here Comes the Sun for her entrance music, which his family said was offensive and against the wishes of the George Harrison estate. (Paul Rodgers of Free and Brian May of Queen also complained about the use of their music during the convention.)
And the Washington Post, New York magazine and Slate all pointed out that the policy positions she espoused in her speech seemed to put her closer to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton than to her father.
If Donald Trump didnt share her last name, its fair to wonder which party Ivanka Trump would back in 2016, wrote Philip Bump in the Washington Post, while Rebecca Traister of New York magazine asked more pointedly: Why is Ivanka trying to pass off her caveman dad as a paragon of gender equality? The Republican platform does not include any mention of child care, day care, early education, equal pay, or paid leave, all of which Ivanka focused on in her speech.
The address was clearly an attempt to build bridges for her father with women, and to a lesser extent minorities two groups the GOP nominee has struggled to win over. A poll last week for the Washington Post/ABC found 69% of women polled had an unfavourable view of Donald Trump, 10 points higher than the figure for men. Shortly before her speech his campaign chairman Paul Manafort drew scorn when he said that Donald Trump could appeal to women feeling economic insecurity because their husbands cant afford to be paying for the family bills.
But introducing her father on stage Ivanka Trump said he was color blind and gender neutral and hires the best person for the job, period.
Trumps eldest daughter, heiress-apparent to her fathers real estate empire, said she had worked with him for more than a decade and seen him hire people from all walks of life.
Donald Trump has faced criticism for his hiring practices and treatment of women in his businesses. But his daughter said his construction sites were true meritocracies.
She also said Trump would fight for equal pay for women and affordable child care, arguing that motherhood was creating a pay discrepancy for women, and promising that her father would fight for equal pay for equal work and I will fight for this too, right along side of him.
The candidate has not addressed child care costs or the gender pay gap so far in his 2016 presidential bid.
The stakes for Ivanka Trumps speech were high. After Donald Trumps wife, Melania, was dogged by accusations of cribbing her remarks from the current first lady and Texas senator Ted Cruz conspicuously failed to endorse the nominee, drawing boos from the crowd, Ivanka Trump was her fathers last, best chance at being presented in a flattering light to voters tuning in to the campaign for the first time.
Where her siblings had supplied mere adjectives Donald Trump is kind, Donald Trump is loving, Donald Trump is strong Ivanka revealed anecdotes, vignettes from a childhood unlike any other that attempted to demonstrate what Donald Trump is like behind gilded doors.
I saw my father tear stories out of the newspaper, about people he never met, who were facing some sort of injustice or hardship, Ivanka said. He would talk to them and draw upon his extensive network, find them a job, and give them a break.
She added: When you have my father in your corner, you will never have to worry again about being let down. He will fight for you, every day, all the time, every time.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/22/ivanka-trump-republican-national-convention-speech