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Ivanka Trump Gave A Confusingly Progressive Speech And Twitter Is Lost

by Alexandra Svokos
REUTERS

Ivanka Trump gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio before her father, Donald, spoke to accept the Republican nomination.

Ivanka's speech was bewildering, but probably not in the way you were thinking.

It was bewildering because it was so progressive.

In a campaign that has been marked with Islamophobic, racist, sexist and generally angry rhetoric, Ivanka's speech was... not.

Rather than speak about Trump's common themes of national safety, protecting the police, keeping Muslim people out of America and generally "winning," Ivanka spoke about equal pay and child care.

These are topics that Trump has commented on sparingly, if at all. They are definitely not a major part of his platform and are not mentioned in his stump speeches.

And yet, somehow, that was the theme of Ivanka's speech to introduce her father as he accepted the nomination at the RNC.

More than just being irrelevant to the Republican platform, Ivanka's speech seemed contrary to the platform as a whole.

REUTERS

She spoke strongly about needing equal pay for women -- a policy supported strongly by the Democratic party. In fact, many conservatives argue against needing laws to ensure equal pay, saying that it's too invasive and demeaning to women.

Ivanka then went on to say childcare needs to be more affordable. Can you remember Trump even once mentioning this in the thousands of hours of speeches and interviews we've heard from him?

And again, childcare is a topic more typically discussed and supported by the Democratic party than by the Republican party. This was a bizarre speech for that reason.

This led to a lot of confusion from commenters on Twitter. People joked that she had gotten lost on the way to the Democratic National Convention (which will be in Philadelphia next week -- and we'll be there, too).

Student debt, equal rights, and better healthcare? Ivanka sure sounds a lot like Bernie — René (@HearReneRoar) July 22, 2016

Ivanka is good friends with Hillary Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, who will be speaking at the DNC herself next week. Maybe they were comparing notes and accidentally switched them.

Personally, I theorize that Ivanka is actually progressive and a Democrat (she has publicly supported Democrats in the past). I think she gave this speech to sneak Democratic ideas into the Republican party. Or, I theorize, she made this speech to not compromise her values while at the same time not pissing off her daddy.

Not a bad move, really.