President Trump’s tweet about Nordstrom’s decision to drop a clothing line designed by his daughter was intended to defend her against attacks and not to boost her business, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday.
“I think this was less about his family business than an attack on his daughter,” Spicer said. “For people to take out their concern about his actions or his executive orders on members of his family, he has every right to stand up for his family.”
Trump took to Twitter earlier Wednesday to argue that the retail chain had treated his daughter Ivanka “so unfairly.” The official government account for the president later retweeted the swipe at Nordstrom, stoking speculation that Trump may have run afoul of ethics restrictions on promoting his family’s business interests.
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
Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump’s fashion line following pressure from a left-leaning campaign called “Grab Your Wallet” to convince major department stores to abandon the first daughter’s products in protest of her father’s policies. Nordstrom said the decision had to do with a decline in sales.
“There is clearly a targeting of her brand. She is not directly running the company, but her name is still on it,” Spicer said on Wednesday. “This is a direct attack on his policies and [his tweet] is clearly an attempt for him to stand up for her because they have a problem with his policies.”
“There’s clearly efforts to undermine that name based on her father’s positions on particular policies that he’s taken,” Spicer added.
The White House press secretary rejected the suggestion that Trump had tweeted about his daughter’s company during his daily intelligence briefing. The tweet was done 21 minutes after the briefing was scheduled to start.
