Ivanka Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee’s daughter, believes her father’s slash-and-burn campaign style has “elevated” the political discourse and “created a dialogue” across the country.
“He’s elevated, he’s created dialogue around issues, and he’s really, it’s a powerful thing,” she said at an event in New York. “When you think about leadership it’s setting the agenda, and he has set the agenda on all the issues that were discussed. And I think that is quite powerful.”
Trump, who has joked he would date his own daughter if they weren’t related, has made a habit of ascribing pejorative nicknames to his political opponents. The labels included calling Jeb Bush “low energy,” “Little Marco” Rubio, “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz, and “Crooked Hillary” Clinton.
The presumptive Republican nominee for president has also linked Cruz’s father to the assassination of President Kennedy, raised questions regarding whether his campaign surrogate Ben Carson is a violent criminal, and seemed to talk about a Fox News anchor’s menstrual cycle as the reason for her questioning of him.
Ivanka Trump, however, said she thinks her father’s honesty has set his campaign apart from his competitors.
“He’s honest,” Ivanka Trump said. “I think people respect the fact that he’s bold enough to say what he’s actually thinking and that’s something that we’ve never really experienced in politics.”
Ivanka Trump has become a major component of Trump’s campaign, and could assume a larger role as the November election approaches. When Trump has faced criticism about his controversial remarks about women in the past, he has dispatched his third wife Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump — who are separated in age by 12 years — to help smooth things over with voters.
As Trump accuses Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of playing the “woman card” on the campaign trail, he may choose to feature Ivanka Trump more prominently on his own behalf.
