Ivanka Trump's Strange Mount Rushmore Picture Is Turning Heads
Ivanka Trump had a sharp career turn when her father, Donald Trump, became president. While she was always actively involved in her father's businesses as well as reality TV appearances, Ivanka's life post-2016 became less about being a New York City socialite and more about the White House.
In the shift away from her old life, Ivanka's fashion line folded and she became a senior advisor to the president, along with her hubby, Jared Kushner. While her position in the White House went unpaid, we finally know how Ivanka makes her money and she actually wasn't decimated financially, even as her father lost the 2020 election.
It's still not clear where Ivanka and her family will go after leaving the White House, but one thing that's obvious is that Ivanka is trying to rehabilitate her reputation while packing her things from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Vanity Fair scathingly said of Ivanka: "[T]he outgoing first daughter appears to be in extremely frantic damage control mode, attempting to prove... that the Trump administration isn't the worst collection of people in modern presidential history."
One of Ivanka's outlets for damage control is Twitter, which is also her father's favorite medium of communication. She recently jumped on the social media platform with a strange tweet about Mount Rushmore. Here's what went down.
Does Ivanka want Trump to be carved into Mount Rushmore?
Ivanka Trump jumped on Twitter on Dec. 7, 2020 to share a rather strange photo of Donald Trump at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Ivanka credits the photo's date as July 3, 2020. What's strange about the photo is that the angle makes it look like Trump's head is taking the fifth spot, as if in preparation for carving.
Amazing photo of @realDonaldTrump during his visit to Mount Rushmore on July 3, 2020 (📷 AP /Alex Brandon) pic.twitter.com/indAz62v6B
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) December 7, 2020
The obvious undertone of Ivanka's tweet, then, is that her father would fit right in if he were memorialized at the national site. Twitter clearly has thoughts about this. One person wrote: "DREAM ON. His face will never be on that mountain."
Another person was really angry, bringing up the pandemic as well as Joe Biden's 2020 victory: "Ivanka's narcissism is as toxic as her father's. Donald Trump is a one-term impeached present who twice lost the popular vote & who is responsible for >275,000 Americans dying in 10 months from a pandemic. He is literally the LAST president whose image belongs on Mount Rushmore."
But it gets even stranger: President Trump actually talked about having his face carved on Mount Rushmore in a controversial moment in the summer of 2020.
Trump said being on Mount Rushmore is his 'dream'
Ivanka Trump's tweet of Donald Trump filling in the fifth place on Mount Rushmore was almost identical to a tweet that Trump himself shared on Aug. 9, 2020, featuring a similar photo. Following Trump's tweet, there was an interesting little exchange where Trump retweeted a news report claiming that he asked the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, to be carved into the national monument.
Trump captioned his retweet with the following statement: "This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!"
Despite the evasive language, it's clear Trump would love to be on Mount Rushmore. In fact, Noem shared a story with the Argus Leader about a conversation with Trump from 2018. "He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,'" Noem said of Trump. "I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?' I started laughing. He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious," Noem recalled.
While Ivanka was simply echoing previous tweets from her father, she's also getting heat from Twitter for other photos.
Ivanka takes photos with other American monuments
Ivanka Trump has been active on Twitter in an effort to leave the White House with the Trumps' all-American first family brand intact. Not only did she tweet her father on Mount Rushmore, but she also tweeted photos of her family at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The photos, shared on Dec. 7, 2020, show Ivanka with her husband, Jared Kushner, and their three children enjoying the famous monument without anyone else there.
Still, the critical pushback has been relentless. In response to the Lincoln memorial photos, one person commented a sly statement, noting Donald Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election: "Do you think Abraham Lincoln would support a political movement that doesn't respect the results of a free-and-fair election?"
It's almost surprising how much Ivanka and her father continue to use Twitter, considering how much heat they tend to get in the replies. But if there's one thing that's clearly important to them, it's controlling their brand and message, and as for the comments... if there's one thing that makes America great, it's freedom of speech.