President Donald Trump spent the later half of the week rubbing elbows at the G-20 summit, which brought together all the most powerful people in the world.
At the event, held in Germany, leaders from the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China were all in attendance. The event even included a highly-anticipated meeting between Vladimir Putin and Trump. The two men held a closed meeting, making headlines worldwide.
At one meeting in the summit, Trump had to step out, and his daughter, Ivanka, took his place. The first daughter was on the trip with her husband, Jared Kushner, who also works in the Trump White House. Both Ivanka Trump and Kushner are unpaid senior advisers.
A senior White House official dismissed the idea that the move was inappropriate, telling CNN, "Ivanka was sitting in the back and then briefly joined the main table when the president had to step out, and the president of the World Bank started talking as the topic involved areas such as African development."
Unsurprisingly, a number of left-leaning pundits found the incident disturbing. CNN contributor Brian Fallon tweeted sarcastically, "I'm sure Republicans would have taken it in stride if Chelsea Clinton was deputized to perform head of state duties."
New York Times columnist Charles Blow was even franker:
Jonah Green of Reuters declared, "Today is the day that Ivanka Trump finally became president."
CNN's Ana Navarro, a Republican critic of Trump, joked on Twitter, "Given choice b/w Pres. Donald or Pres. Ivanka, I'd take her. After all, she's smart and eloquent and knows how to make champagne popsicles."
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