“Four years later: here I am”: more confident, mixing intimate anecdotes and passionate flights to defend Donald Trump’s record, his daughter Ivanka appeared Thursday evening as an apparent heir, only among his five children invited to speak to the last evening of the Republican convention.
Smiling and greeting the assembly, the senior advisor to the President of the United States made her entrance into the gardens of the White House on the song “I’m still standing” by Elton John.
“Tonight I stand before you as the proud daughter of the People’s President,” said Ivanka Trump, 38.
From an obvious place of honor.
The fiery speech of his brother Donald Junior, 42, at the opening of the convention, had made him appear as a worthy heir to the stormy Republican billionaire. And the president’s other adult children, Eric and Tiffany Trump, have all had their say since Monday.
But it was Ivanka who had the privilege of making, live, the speech to present her father, on the evening of her official inauguration to run for a second term on November 3.
“Dad, people attack you because you are unusual. But I love you because you are true and I respect you because you are efficient, ”launched this businesswoman, mother of three children, whom some already see one day running for the White House.
“A warrior in the White House”
Faced with his father’s rougher tone, his close advisor sought to present a more human side to voters, speaking to them directly. While taking up the broad outlines of the Trump presidency.
“To the hard working men and women, across America and here tonight: You are the reason my father fights with all his heart and all his strength.”
Like First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday, she mentioned the President’s tweets, which put off some Republican voters, in an attempt to present them as her father’s trump card.
“Whether you agree with him or not, you always know where he stands. I admit that my father’s communication style is not to everyone’s taste. And I know his tweets can seem unfiltered. But the results, the results speak for themselves, ”she said, eliciting applause.
“Washington has not changed Donald Trump. Donald Trump changed Washington, ”his daughter said. “Today more than ever America needs four more years of a warrior in the White House.”
In 2016, she had already spoken in an appeal to young people and undecided voters. “Like many millennials like me, I don’t categorically consider myself a Republican or a Democrat. More than belonging to a party, I vote for what I consider good for my family and my country ”.
Four years later, the tone is even more assured, mixing a dramatic pause and well-placed laughter: “four years ago, I told you that I would fight alongside my father and four years later: here I am!”
Parental leave, daycare help, women’s employment: in saluting her father’s record, Ivanka Trump was careful to highlight her own contribution to her father’s policies, sometimes negotiated in person in Congress. Her husband, Jared Kushner, is also a senior adviser to the US president.
Faced with attacks from the pharmaceutical giants, she said, “my father smiles and tells me you know we are doing something right if they hit us so hard.”
By thanking his “wonderful daughter” for this presentation, Donald Trump distinguished her by asking her to stand up to greet the assembly again. At his side, his brother Donald Junior and his half-sister Tiffany Trump, smiling but seated.
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