Please Don't Ask This White House Official Questions About Her Father, the President

In an interview with NBC on Monday, Ivanka Trump chastised a reporter for asking her about sexual misconduct allegations against her father. Now, if Ivanka Trump were living in, say, New York City, and working in, say, the private sector, that response might not have sounded quite so deranged. However, seeing as she just privately briefed South Korean President Moon Jae-in this weekend on economic sanctions against North Korea—without a permanent security clearance—it’s tough to work out how she got away with this dodge.

“Do you believe your father’s accusers?” NBC’s Peter Alexander asked.

“I think it’s a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated that there’s no truth to it,” Trump answered, grinning widely. “I don’t think that’s a question you would ask many other daughters.”

There aren’t many other daughters, of course, who possess the precise mix of audacity and stupidity it takes to work as a White House advisor to their own parent. Caught in a trap of her own making, she uses the term “daughter” as a shield, the same way another person might use the phrase “innocent child” or “disabled victim of a violent crime.”

Meanwhile, in the same interview, Trump told NBC News that arming teachers—a terrible, frightening hairball fantasy that the NRA-aligned president recently hacked up—is an idea that merits discussion, although the senior government official also said “to be honest, I don’t know.”