Ivanka Greeted With Boos at Women's Summit

Media access to the first family may be somewhat controlled in the US, but Ivanka Trump found such a buffer doesn't exist in Germany. Trump took the stage in Berlin on Tuesday at the W20 summit on women's entrepreneurship, at Chancellor Angela Merkel's invite, and she was quickly met with a hard-hitting question from the editor of a German business magazine about her simultaneous role as first daughter and assistant to her dad, as well as where her true loyalties are, Politico reports. "Who are you representing, your father as president of the [US], the American people, or your business?" Miriam Meckel asked, adding Germans aren't in tune with what a "first daughter" does. "Certainly not the latter," Trump noted in reference to her business priorities, admitting she's also "rather unfamiliar" with her new role and that she's currently in "listening" and "learning" mode.

When she praised her father's "advocacy" for women, however, specifically via paid-leave policies, the audience did more than raise a collective eyebrow: Some booed and hissed, and Meckel pushed Trump to address that reaction, considering "some attitudes" the president has exhibited. "I've certainly heard the criticism from the media, that's been perpetuated," Trump replied, adding that her father never held her back personally and hired plenty of women for important jobs in his own companies and administration. When asked after the panel about the heckling, Trump said "politics is politics" and she's "used to it," per CNN. What's more important, she noted, is that there's continued dialogue and everyone can "feel comfortable candidly expressing ourselves without fear of being labeled and ostracized." (Ivanka Trump got the OK last week from China on a bunch of trademarks.)