Many Flags but No Ivanka
What does history say about first ladies? It’s a conversation worth having.
In 2017, President Donald Trump famously suggested that his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, would be his most favorite person to date, the “most beautiful woman” he has ever met. The comment sparked a wave of backlash, and the White House quickly walked back the remark. In his recent interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Trump added that he has his wife’s “beauty” and has never considered her less than pretty. “I have the most beautiful wife — Melania,” he said. He later told Baier on Fox & Friends that he wouldn’t be surprised if any wife was his wife.
On Monday at the annual Women in the World Summit on Women, a panel of women — businesswomen, academics, social activist, and philanthropists — asked the audience to imagine that the First Lady was Ivanka Trump, or at the very least, that she was married to the president. The first lady responded with a quote from Susan B. Anthony: “It is not our nature to do what we ought.” But it seems that it is.
As it turns out, the first lady — whether her husband has her for her beauty or not — has the same flaws as the rest of the women in her class. The New York Times reported last November that many of the nation’s top CEOs and high-level executives have a history of affairs, cheating, and other “non-marital flings.” The Times reported that “of the more than 15,000 women in leadership positions in the U.S. and about 40,000 total, about half of them are married or have dated other men.”
One of those high-powered women is Ivanka Trump. She attended her father-in-law’s third inauguration. In addition, she