A $5,000 metallic Carolina Herrera gownIvanka Trumpwore in Jan. 2017 has come under fire again from critics questioning the first daughter’s notable silence over her father’s“cruel” immigration policy.
The image quickly became a meme, with other users posting their own versions of the image along with scathing commentary.
It wasn’t the first time Ivanka’s been mocked for the gown, either.
The photo, which also featured her husband, Jared Kushner, was previously called into question when it was first posted on Jan. 29, 2017 — hours after her father put forward his controversial Muslim ban and suspended the U.S. refugee program.
“Honey, we’re late for the wrong side of history party,” comedian Mike Birbiglia wrote at the time.
Others posted splits of Ivanka and Syrian refugeeswearing the same thermal blankets.
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But her step-mother,Melania Trump, did issue a surprising rebuke of the controversial policy when shereleased an uncharacteristic statementover the weekend.
“Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families,” the first lady’s communications director, Stephanie Grisham, told PEOPLE on Sunday.
“[She] hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform,” Grisham said, adding that Mrs. Trump “believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”
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While some applauded the statement and interpreted it as a“brave stand” against President Trump’s family-separation policy, others criticized the first lady — an immigrant herself — for placing blame for the migrant crisis on “both sides,” rather than squarely on the Trump administration’s policy.
The Guardianargued that, on closer inspection,the first lady’s statement “effectively endorsed her husband’s false claimthat Democrats are responsible for his administration’s practice of separating parents and children.”
In a briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also cast the first couple as in sync on the issue. “What he said [on Friday] very closely mirrored what the first lady said. He hates seeing this,” she said. “He’s called on Congress … Democrats in Congress to work with him, let’s fix this problem.”
Asked if there was “any daylight between the president and the first lady” on the way the administration is enforcing immigration law, Sanders replied, “We’ve made it abundantly clear that the daylight exists between Democrats in Congress and their ability to change the law.”
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During an impromptu question-and-answer session in front of the White House on Friday, Trump told reporters, “I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law — that’s their law.”
But, asThe New York Timesnotes, there’s actuallyno law that says children must be taken away from their parentsat the border. In fact, it was the Trump administration’s decision to prosecute asylum seekers who enter the U.S. at the border that has led to parents being sent into criminal custody and separated from their children.
source: people.com
