On Wednesday morning, the president announced that his administration would ban trans people from serving in the military “in any capacity.”
The move is bigoted, cynical, founded on a lie, and entirely consistent with the Republican belief that to have a medical need is to be an unacceptable burden to the state.
It is also the most recent reminder of the ways in which Ivanka Trump, who for decades was welcomed in monied New York circles as a respectable liberal, is either an abject failure when it comes to achieving any of her stated policy goals, or never actually had any in the first place.
“I think there are multiple ways to have your voice heard. In some cases, it’s through protest and it’s through going on the nightly news and talking about or denouncing every issue on which you disagree with,” Trump explained when asked about her influence during an interview on CBS back in April. “Other times it is quietly and directly and candidly. So where I disagree with my father, he knows it. And I express myself with total candor.”
Here’s some of what that candor has accomplished so far:
EMPOWERING WOMEN AND GIRLS
What Ivanka Trump said she wants:
- Help women and children, generally
What the Trump administration has done:
- Trump administration supports healthcare bills that will mean anywhere from 22 million to 32 million people lose their insurance
- Trump administration supports healthcare bills that would deny Planned Parenthood Medicaid reimbursements for services provided to low-income patients
- Trump administration supports healthcare bills that allow states to get a waiver on Obamacare’s essential benefit requirements, including maternity care
- President Trump signs a bill allowing states to block Title X funding for family planning providers that offer abortion services
- Trump administration targets parents and children in sweeping immigration crackdown
- Trump administration revives the Global Gag Rule, which prevents U.S. foreign aid recipients from offering any information, referrals, services, or advocacy regarding abortion care
- Trump administration begins immigration sweeps that detain domestic violence victims and forces others into silence
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolls back federal oversight of police departments, potentially leaving victims of rape and sexual assault vulnerable to police departments with a pattern of mishandling cases and intimidating victims
LGBTQ RIGHTS
What Ivanka Trump said she wants:
- Support LGBTQ community, generally
What the Trump administration has done:
- President Trump bans trans people from serving in the military, a reversal of an Obama-era policy allowing trans service members and recruits to serve openly
- Trump administration rescinds guidelines on trans students that helped protect fair access to school facilities
- Education Secretary Betsy DeVos refuses to commit to preventing charter school that receive federal funds from discriminating against LGBTQ students
- President Trump appoints anti-LGBTQ ideologues to key positions in his administration
CLIMATE CHANGE
What Ivanka Trump said she wants:
- Keep the United States in the Paris Climate Agreement, “clean air and clean water,” generally
What the Trump administration has done:
- Trump administration withdraws from Paris agreement
- Trump administration rolls back the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with Paris agreement
- Trump names a climate denier with deep ties to the oil and gas industries to head the Environmental Protection Agency
- Trump administration releases budget proposing to hobble the EPA by cutting its budget by 31 percent
- EPA head Scott Pruitt announces a plan to try to challenge climate science and create the overwhelming scientific consensus on manmade climate change
SUPPORTING WORKING FAMILIES
What Ivanka Trump said she wants:
- Support women in the workplace, generally
What the Trump administration has done:
- Proposal for six weeks paid family leave—available to mothers and fathers—attached to budget proposal that contains: a 20 percent cut to the Children’s Health Insurance Program; $40.4 billion in cuts to the earned income tax credit and child tax credit; $21.6 billion in cuts to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; $610 billion in Medicaid cuts, a program in which 48 percent of recipients are children
- Trump administration proposes budget cutting $1.2 billion for before- and after-school programs that serve 1.6 million kids
- Trump administration rolls back workplace protections for women who experience sexual harassment
- President Trump appoints three men for every woman in his administration
- Trump administration drafts proposal allowinging any employer or insurer to opt out of covering contraceptives for employees if they cite a religious or moral objection
That’s Ivanka Trump’s scorecard, six months into her father’s presidency. We will periodically update this list as she achieves yet more in the months to come.