A little over a week after his shock election victory, President-elect Trump took to his favorite medium, Twitter, to refute a flurry of news reports claiming that he was trying to get his children top-level security clearance.
Well, that turned out to be a bunch of baloney.
On Monday, the Associated Press reported that first daughter Ivanka Trump would be granted top-level security clearance (giving her access to classified information), a White House office, and government-issued mobile devices—all this despite not having any actual job title. Jamie Gorelick, Ivanka’s attorney, confirmed the AP report, further alleging that Ivanka would “voluntarily comply with the [ethics] rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not.” Meanwhile, the actual first lady of the United States, Melania Trump, isn’t even living in the White House.
Enter Trevor Noah. The Daily Show host has been one of Ivanka’s toughest critics, thanking Nordstrom for dumping her brand and mocking her swooning over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And on Tuesday, he dedicated the first portion of his program to the latest development concerning the former flammable scarf saleswoman.
“So, it’s official, people: The White House has lower standards of who they’ll bring in than Nordstrom,” joked Noah. “And by the way, Ivanka says she’ll follow all the ethics rules? I feel like the first rule of Ethics Club is: Don’t hire your daughter. That’s the first rule! The simplest and first rule.”
The decision by President Trump to install Ivanka in the West Wing while his wife lives several states away is especially odd given his history of creepy comments toward his daughter, including but not limited to: “she’s got the best body,” “I’ve said that if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her,” and “if I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father…”
“You know, this is one of those stories that goes so deep: nepotism, possible conflicts of incest, compromise of national security,” said Noah. “I mean, we should be digging into the details of a job with no title. What does that mean? But the truth is, we can’t. Because in the world we’re living in now, ain’t nobody got time for that.”
Indeed, there are bigger fish to fry.
