The children of presidents are part of an exclusive and usually genteel club — but that hasn’t stopped one of them from speaking out against the highest-profile latest occupant of that role.
On Saturday’s episode of “AM Joy” on MSNBC, Ron Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, called Ivanka Trump her father’s “security blanket” and blasted the president for having Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner in prominent advisory roles.
During a panel discussion that also included attorney Lisa Bloom and Politico’s Annie Karni, host Joy-Ann Reid turned to Reagan, saying he’s the only person who knows what it’s like to be the child of a president with whom you “ideologically disagree with,” (as the junior Reagan is a longtime liberal), and asked him if Ivanka’s role, where she is receiving national security information without any kind of defined job or dossier, is “odd.” He answered in the affirmative, and then went after what he perceived as the Trump-Kushner couple’s gross lack of qualifications in being given such high positions in government.
“Has it occurred to anybody — and I’m sure it’s occurred to all of us — that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have absolutely no policy chops whatshowever?” Reagan said. “They don’t have any expertise in anything. It says a lot about Donald Trump and his inability to be president that these two people who don’t know anything about anything are among his top advisers.”
Reagan brought up ethical concerns as well, but pivoted back to the basic question of why the two of them are in the White House, and argued that it was to be a source of comfort for an instinctual — and insecure — president.
“The thing that fascinates me more than any of this stuff is why she’s there in the first place,” Reagan said. “And for that matter, why Jared Kushner’s there. It seems to me that she’s something of a security blanket for Donald Trump and also, I suspect people around him are panicking because they can’t control him. He’s a reckless, thoughtless unknowledgeable president who tweets madly at all hours of the morning and they need someone to get that under control and maybe Ivanka is it.”
Earlier in the show, Bloom rejected the idea that Ivanka is some type of secret women’s rights advocate in the administration.
“I think we have to let go of the idea that Ivanka is a stealth feminist,” Bloom said. “Whispering in her father’s ear, advocating for women’s rights. Because apparently she has not lifted a pretty little jeweled finger to help women or anybody else since he’s been elected.”
Watch the video above.