Abby Zimet: Unwanted Ivanka — Daddy Will You Buy Me A Pony or Country?

Because it’s not bad enough the G-20 summit in Osaka gave us Trump’s own mortifying blunders, North Korean photo-ops and gleeful “jokes” about killing journalists, we also got the “take-your-even-more-narcissistic-than-you-daughter-to-work” farce of Nepotism Barbie inexplicably turning up in flouncy pink at every event. The collective consternation of real-life leaders – AOC helpfully noted being someone’s daughter isn’t an actual qualification – was highlighted in a now-viral video released by the office of France’s Emmanuel Macron. It shows Ivanka excruciatingly struggling to join a conversation of grownups – Macron, Theresa May, Justin Trudeau, the IMF’s Christine Lagarde: They discuss social justice; she babbles male-dominated-lookit-this-purse-I-sell-non-sequiturs; they offer varying expressions of “tortured politeness” clearly revealing the subtext of the scene and the video release, as in, “WTF is this blonde moron doing here, and will someone please make her go away?”, with the visibly irritated Lagarde, in particular, looking like most of us. Confronted by such absurd kleptocracy, Twitter, as is its wont, got sweet revenge. Meet #Unwanted Ivanka, wherein the Princess of Clueless Complicity primps and prances, Zelig-like, through history. Because these days you gotta laugh or cry, though actually some of us do both.