The 'US Weekly' Ivanka Trump Cover Deserved The Backlash

The first daughter's role — or, shall I say, complicity — in her father's actions have often made her a target of criticism. It was no different on Wednesday, when a Us Weekly article on Ivanka Trump taking a stand against her father sparked intense backlash for painting her as a force of resistance who "will always fight for what she believes in."

To begin with, the magazine's cover — yes, she even made the cover! — seems to be a defense of Trump. "Ivanka takes a stand," is the first line, with a headline of "Why I Disagree With My Dad." The subtitle portrays her as someone who always tries to do right by her family and her country: "Balancing her personal ideals with love and loyalty to her father, the president's daughter will always fight for what she believes in."

The article itself continues in the same vein, noting that "Ivanka is the best woman for the job" of adviser to the president, because he listens to her the most. And when she fails to convince him on whatever pressing issue it is, be it the Paris accord or LGBT rights, "she doesn’t wallow in defeat."

Yeah, sorry, Ivanka. The world's not having it.

While Us Weekly didn't interview Ivanka for their piece, they quote sources close to her — and as many on Twitter have pointed out, it seems highly unlikely that this could have come together without her giving the green light. Given the article's content, it's even more improbable that she would have said no. The fact is, Trump's personal brand is suffering because of her role in her father's administration — and she's "yugely" in need of a defense.

For one thing, not one month in the Trump administration has gone by without Ivanka being called a hypocrite. There was her tweet about equal pay for women, which came out the same day that her father took away protections for women in the workplace. There's also the fact that her company still produces many of its goods in China, despite her father's "America first" attitude. More recently, she tweeted in support of Pride month and then faced a outpouring of responses pointing out that she's working very hard to put a nice face on an extremely homophobic administration.

Her recent girl-power book, Women Who Work, has been widely condemned as tone-deaf toward the experiences of women in the workplace — that is, women who didn't build personal brands off of their family names. Reports claim she exerts influence over her father, but the president nevertheless decides against what she reportedly advocates for, like when he pulled out of the Paris climate accord.

Donald Trump's early months in the White House haven't been going quite as well as he hoped so far, so it's in the first daughter's interest to try to keep herself somewhat separate from his operation. She may not want to relinquish her position, but she can at least try to convince people that she isn't on the same side as him with every issue. If she really want to succeed in that endeavor, it's going to take a whole lot more than a puff piece defending her.