July 02, 2019
Why Ivanka Trump didn’t belong anywhere near the DMZ or the G-20 summit
Since President Trump took office, the White House has been pushing the boundaries of what the American public will tolerate in terms of family involvement in presidential decision-making, intermingling of official government business with Trump’s private businesses and development of foreign policy strategy. (After all, the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, just released a Middle East peace plan.) But even by Trump’s low standards, this past week broke new ground.
The president put forth his daughter Ivanka as a stand-in for actual diplomats and government officials at several high-level meetings and interactions with world leaders at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, and at meetings in South Korea and the demilitarized zone on the North Korea-South Korea border. Ivanka Trump was by the president’s side for his visit to the DMZ, while his national security adviser, John Bolton, was dispatched to Mongolia. A video showed her apparently trying to join a conversation among French President Emmanuel Macron, outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May and International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde in an encounter that looked as though she thought she was at a Hamptons cocktail party. The first daughter was later introduced alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a visit with U.S. troops in South Korea.
This ascension of family-directed foreign affairs is an unhealthy development for our democracy. And Ivanka Trump ought to back off: Americans didn’t elect her, we don’t have any way of holding her accountable and we don’t support her playacting at government.
Read the full article in The Washington Post.
More from CNAS
-
Five “Blockades” and One Legal Problem: Naval Enforcement in the U.S.–Iran Conflict
Commentary
The Pentagon should clarify, with precision, the legal authorities underpinning each maritime enforcement action....
By Mark Nevitt
-
Masked and Anonymous
Commentary
David Aaron is a former Manhattan assistant district attorney and Department of Justice national security and cyber prosecutor. He is now in private practice at an AmLaw 50 la...
By David Aaron
-
Distinguishing Between Soldiers and Law Enforcement Officers
Commentary
Carrie F. Cordero is the Robert M. Gates senior fellow and director of the National Security Law Program at CNAS....
By Carrie Cordero
-
The Constitution’s Forgotten Term Limit on Military Power
Commentary
They designed the Two-Year Clause not as a technical appropriations rule but as a structural guarantee: that the army of the United States would remain, as one Federalist put ...
By Mark Nevitt & Matthew. B. Lawrence
