Ivanka Trump is reportedly gearing up to make climate change mitigation one of her signature issues, according to Politico. No, this isn’t a joke, and yes, her father is the man who repeatedly referred to climate change as a hoax or a myth.
Donald Trump is set to roll back decades’ worth of climate change research, environmental protection, and natural disaster prevention, all because he’s such a fervent fan of coal and short-term profits. He has surrounded himself with climate change deniers, and he has very little understanding of renewable energy. He recently said he finds wind “very deceiving”.
Ivanka, though, is clearly different. She is said to be “in the early stages of exploring how to use her spotlight to speak out on the issue.” It’s not entirely clear, though, what her thoughts on climate change actually are. So in this respect, she could “speak out” against scientists or for them. We’ve no idea.
Having no clue what a member of the Trump clan thinks is part and parcel of their whole shtick. The President-elect himself has changed position on almost everything, from whether he wants to lock up Hillary Clinton, repeal Obamacare, or, remarkably, on whether climate change is caused by humans.
Ivanka is clearly following in her highly fugacious father’s footsteps. Unlike Donald, however, Ivanka seems to have never tweeted about climate change.
If she were to come out in favor of acknowledging that humans are causing climate change, then this would of course be deeply ironic, similar to how Melania Trump spoke out against cyber-bullying while being married to Donald Trump.
As you can probably tell, we’re skeptical. Maybe, though, Ivanka will agree that humanity is really messing up the climate and that it needs to stop. Maybe she will convince her dad to not leave the Paris agreement. Maybe she can convince Donald Trump that the world really is worth saving after all.
Perhaps this will all turn out to be like the Return of the Jedi, and she’ll turn to the Light Side and defeat her father, the Dark Lord of the Sith, in a battle as the emperor Steve Bannon looks on and cackles. Fingers crossed.
Either way, Ivanka is becoming an increasingly significant contributor to the pandemonium of pathos that we know of as 2016.
Spending most of the election cycle fairly incognito, an unexpectedly rigorous interview in Cosmopolitan brought her into the spotlight after she failed to defend her father’s deplorable viewpoints and stormed out. Nowadays, she’s attempting to play as prominent a role in her dad’s new empire as possible by sitting in on meetings with heads of state while sneakily promoting her jewelry range.
[H/T: Politico]
