Ivanka Trump, Queen Maxima, and Other Female Leaders Look Amazing at Summit — But What They Said Was Even Better

Ivanka Trump attended the W20 conference on empowerment for women in Berlin. (Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Ivanka Trump attended the W20 conference on empowerment for women in Berlin. (Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

At Tuesday’s W20 Summit in Berlin, female leaders in business and politics came together wearing power reds and on-trend florals to discuss women’s economic empowerment. While their well-coordinated apparel was one of several harmonious elements of the gathering of female heads of state and heads of industry, there was a discordant moment involving first daughter Ivanka Trump.

Stephanie Bschorr, president of the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs; Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s daughter and assistant, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Dutch Queen Maxima. (Photo: AP)
Stephanie Bschorr, president of the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs; Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s daughter and assistant, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Dutch Queen Maxima. (Photo: AP)

Ivanka, who wore a floral wrap dress to the summit, was met with hisses and boos from the audience when she described her father, President Trump, as a “tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive” while speaking on a W20 panel alongside notable leaders German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Holland’s Queen Maxima, President of the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs Stephanie Bschorr, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, and Nicola Leibinger-Kammueller, president of the German electronic and tool company Trumpf GmbH.

That wasn’t the only negative feedback Ivanka faced during the morning’s conversation, though. The first question of the day was from moderator Miriam Meckel, the editor of a German business magazine, who asked Ivanka whether she was participating on the panel as a representative of “your father, the American people, or your business.”

The first daughter replied, “Well, certainly not the latter, and I am rather unfamiliar with this role as it is quite new to me. It has been a little under 100 days, but it’s just been a remarkable, an incredible journey. So it’s very early for me. I’m listening, I’m learning, I’m defining the ways in which I think I’ll be able to have impact.”

When asked by Meckel how her father could “empower women,” given some of his past on-the-record statements about women, Ivanka answered, “I’ve certainly heard the criticism from the media and that’s been perpetuated, but I know from personal experience, and I think the thousands of women who have worked with and for my father for decades when he was in the private sector are a testament to his belief and solid conviction in the potential of women and their ability to do the job as well as any man.” She added that “as adviser, as a daughter, I can speak on a very personal level knowing that he encouraged me and enabled me to thrive.”

Ivanka also explained that it was her father who encouraged her to “come into the White House and be by his side,” as reported by NPR, and that she does consider herself a feminist, but “in broad terms.”

Ivanka Trump was invited to participate in the W20 panel by Merkel during the German chancellor’s visit to the White House last month.

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