US President Donald Trump defended his daughter,
White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, on Monday,
after she raised some
eyebrows over the weekend by taking his place at a table with world
leaders at a G20 meeting.
She briefly sat in her father’s chair at the global
gathering in Hamburg during a closed-door session on African development
as the World Bank president spoke.
Her appearance prompted a string of reactions on Twitter and caught the attention of the German media and other outlets.
Early on Monday, Trump called the arrangement “very
standard” in a tweet where he also noted that German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, who was hosting the G20 summit, agreed.
Merkel had dismissed the move at a news conference after the G20 ended.
“Ivanka belongs to the US delegation,” Merkel, who has worked with her on various issues, said on Friday.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, also
defended Ivanka, saying on Sunday that the president’s daughter had
often sat in on meetings with her and Trump, especially those regarding
women and business.
Ivanka Trump ran a clothing and jewelry business before
taking a formal job at the White House after her father took office in
January.
She has made women’s issues one of her signature policy areas.
At the G20, she also took the spotlight at a separate
event alongside World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and other world
leaders to launch a public-private loan programme aimed at boosting
female entrepreneurs in developing countries.
Lawrence Summers, a former World Bank official and
economic adviser under former Democratic president Barack Obama, said it
was rare for government heads to leave during major summits and that,
when they must, foreign ministers or other very senior government
officials normally fill in.