Trump's attack on Nordstrom over Ivanka gets the POTUS Twitter boost
UPDATED 4:15 p.m. ET to add comment from Nordstrom.
UPDATED 2:15 p.m. ET to add comment from Sean Spicer during White House press briefing.
President Trump is now upping the ante on his attack tweets, finally taking to the @POTUS Twitter account to retweet himself attacking clothing chain Nordstrom for dropping daughter Ivanka Trump's clothing line.
Late Wednesday morning, Trump sent a tweet from his personal account slamming Nordstrom for treating Ivanka "unfairly."
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
Trump has previously used his Twitter to attack (and praise) business in the past, but this is the first time he's attacked a business over its dealings with Ivanka and the first time he's amplified the tweet by retweeting it on his @POTUS account and its 15 million followers.
Yes, "President Trump retweeted Donald Trump" is a real yet unsurprising thing.
The retailer announced the move a few days ago, citing lagging sales. Both Nordstrom and a rep for Ivanka's line said earlier in the week that the decision was not political.
An Ivanka Trump rep told fashion website Refinery 29, "Nordstrom ordered both apparel and shoes for the spring, and followed through with the orders on the apparel. They canceled the shoe order, kept the apparel order and moved the apparel from online into stores. It's there.”
The website also spoke with a Nordstrom spokesperson who said, “This was absolutely not political — it was exclusively based on the performance of the brand... Simply put, the performance has been difficult over the past year."
A Nordstrom spokesperson said on Wednesday:
Mashable also reached out to reps for Ivanka Trump for comment on President Trump's tweet.
The chain also responded to a question on Twitter, confirming the comment from Ivanka's rep about there still being items sold in store.
@shannoncoulter Yes, we still have inventory on hand, so customers will continue to see product until it sells through.
— Nordstrom (@Nordstrom) February 4, 2017
Still, some saw it as a political decision because of calls for boycotts of Ivanka's brand by activists like Shannon Coulter, quoted in the tweet above, of #GrabYourWallet, a group that maintains a list of shops and companies connected to Trump that it urges shoppers to boycott, instead steering them toward other retailers.
As with other businesses who have felt the wrath of Trump on Twitter, Nordstrom saw a quick dip in its stock price when Trump's tweet hit the web. But the drop was small and the stock had rebounded within 10 minutes of the dip.
Responding to questions about the tweet at the daily press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the president was defending a family member, saying Nordstrom's decision was "a direct attack on his policies and her name."
Nordstrom is hardly alone in dropping Ivanka's fashion line, as retailers like Belk and Neiman Marcus have also done so and TJ Maxx took a much more overt stand against the brand but haven't raised the online ire of the President.
Yet.
