Ivanka Trump was booed and hissed at a women’s panel in Germany on Tuesday after praising her father's attitudes towards women.
Speaking at the high-profile event, her first international trip as an official representative of the US, Trump called her father “a tremendous champion of supporting families” and said she was “very proud of [his] advocacy”, Politico reported.
Trump’s celebration of her father’s stance on paid leave policies evoked hostility from the majority-women audience, who booed and hissed in disagreement.
Ivanka gets booed and hissed by audience when she says her father is a"tremendous champion of supporting families."
— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) April 25, 2017
Some in audience now hissing Ivanka as moderator presses her about @POTUS attitude toward women. #W20
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) April 25, 2017
Trump also said she could speak "as a daughter... on a very personal level" about her father. “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,” she said, adding that she was treated the same as her brothers.
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She was also asked about what exactly her role in her father’s administration entails. "The German audience is not that familiar with the concept of a first daughter,” said moderator Miriam Meckel, editor of German weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche. "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?”
To which Trump replied that the answer was "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.”
Trump did not clearly define her role, but said she is, "striving to think about how best to empower women in the economy” and called herself a feminist.
Trump was on the W20 panel alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at her invitation. Also on the panel was Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands. Trump will also have dinner with the German Chancellor during her trip.