Ivanka Trump lands in Germany after Merkel invite

Ivanka Trump lands in Germany after Merkel invite



During her first international trip as an official adviser to her father, Ivanka Trump was booed when she mentioned the president's name before sharing a warm handshake with Angela Merkel one month after he awkwardly snubbed the German Chancellor.

President Donald Trump's eldest daughter spoke during the Women's 20 Summit in Berlin at the start of a jam-packed one-day tour after being 'directly invited' by Merkel last month.

While Merkel visited the U.S. in March, the president seemingly ignored requests from the press to shake Merkel's hand while the pair were meeting in the Oval Office. He was heavily criticized for not doing so and mocked by man on social media.

However, Ivanka did not follow in her father's footsteps and shared a friendly handshake with Merkel after participating in the panel discussion on women's entrepreneurship alongside Merkel, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and IMF chief Christine Lagarde.

While trying to defend her father, the mother-of-three was booed and hissed at by the majority-female audience when she told the room, 'I'm very proud of my father's advocacy' before she said that he's a 'tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive.'

The moderator, WirtschaftsWoche editor-in-chief Miriam Meckel, interrupted Ivanka and said, 'You hear the reaction from the audience, so I need to address one more point. Some attitudes towards women, your father has publicly displayed in former times might leave one questioning whether he's such an empower-er for women. How do you relate to that or are things changing? What's your comment on that?'

'I've certainly heard the criticism from the media and that's been perpetuated,' Ivanka replied.

In addition, Meckel, grilled Ivanka about what exactly her role is her father's administration.

'You're the First Daughter of the United States, and you're also an assistant to the president,' Meckel said



'The German audience is not that familiar with the concept of a First Daughter. I'd like to ask you, what is your role, and who are you representing, your father as president of the United States, the American people, or your business?'

Ivanka, who was seated next to Lagarde, replied: 'Certainly not the latter. I'm rather unfamiliar with this role as well...It has been a little under 100 days and it has just been a remarkable and incredible journey.'

The First Daughter did not give a definition as to what her job title entails, but did state that she cared 'very much about empowering women in the workplace'.

She defined her goal as enacting 'incremental positive change. That is my goal. This is very early for me, I'm listening, learning.'

Ivanka also defended her father discussing how he treated her the same as her two brothers.  

'As a daughter, I can speak on a very personal level,' Ivanka said. 'I grew up in a house where there was no barriers to what I could accomplish beyond my own perseverance and tenacity. That's not an easy thing to do, he provided that for us. There was no difference.'

She also redited her father's administration for hiring women in important roles.

'The team basically going through the vetting and hiring process -- six out of eight of those people are women,' Ivanka said.

Ivanka is scheduled later Tuesday afternoon to visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Much has been made of the visit after Merkel's frosty meeting with Trump in Washington last month where the US President seemingly declined to shake his German counterpart's hand, opting instead for an uneasy joke about wiretapping.



The Germans are immensely curious about the Ivanka, wondering if she'll be the moderating force she portrays herself to be, or simply a 'loyal accomplice' as German newspaper Berliner Zeitung mused, nicknaming Trump 'First Flusterin' or 'the first whisperer.'

The president's eldest daughter's visit was at the direct invitation of Chancellor Angela Merkel, the White House said, after the two met in Washington in March.

To prepare for the panel discussion, Ivanka spent weeks preparing, diving into McKinsey & Company reports on women in the workforce, Politico reported. She wanted to successfully highlight the role of women in the global economy and talk about the importance of their access to capital.

The First Daughter started her day with a visit to the American embassy in Berlin where she met ambassador Kent Logsdon who was appointed on January 20.

She is set to visit Siemens Technik Akademie, which comes a month after she held a round-table discussion with Merkel on 'Vocational Education and Workforce Development' as 'education and skills training' is 'central to Ivanka and Chancellor Merkel's agenda.'



She is also going to pay her respects at the Memorial to the