Is Ivanka the worst Trump? Her tweeted portrait of ‘perfect motherhood’ seals it for me | Arwa Mahdawi

Does anyone believe the media-savvy first daughter mistimed her tweet – just as reports emerge of children being forcibly separated from their parents by US borders agents?

I’m generally a big believer in Hanlon’s Razor: the idea that you should never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. But I’d like to put forward a slightly different theorem to help explain these Trumpian times: Ivanka’s Razor. The principle that, when it comes to Ivanka Trump, you should never ascribe to stupidity or ignorance that which can be explained by malice.

Take, as a case in point, the photo Ivanka tweeted on Sunday, captioned “My <3! #SundayMorning” in which the first daughter is cuddling her two-year-old son. Ivanka chose to post this snapshot of familial bliss at the same time as the news was full of reports of children being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border; a component of a “zero tolerance” immigration policy the Trump administration is responsible for creating. While Ivanka’s photo received immediate backlash, I was struck by the fact that the tweet was largely characterised as being “tone-deaf”. The general consensus seemed to be that Ivanka hadn’t considered how the photo might look amid horrific headlines about separated families. That she had been thoughtless.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2siTAjy