Ivanka Trump Was Thrilled About Her Dad’s United Nations Speech, John Kelly and Everyone Else Not So Much
Ivanka expressed her approval on Instagram, while John Kelly didn’t have to say a word.
Donald Trump delivered his first address to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday morning, presenting a speech that underscored his administration’s emphasis on American exceptionalism, isolationism, and military power. The president and former struggling real-estate mogul was greeted by a crowd of grimacing faces, including those of the leaders of nations he name-checked in the speech (or didn’t) and in the press gallery, where his overt threats towards North Korea drew actual gasps.
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said, proceeding to refer to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by a not-very-endearing new pet name: “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary. That’s what the United Nations is all about; that’s what the United Nations is for. Let’s see how they do.”
There was a notable exception to the general dismay: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was, apparently, thrilled—as was first daughter Ivanka Trump, who, even though she did not attend the speech at the U.N., still chimed in with her approval on Instagram.
“Incredible speech by POTUS as he addresses the world at the United Nations General Assembly today,” she wrote, accompanied by an image of Trump at the General Assembly podium. “I look forward to furthering the goals of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery at the UN this afternoon with UK Prime Minister May and continuing to champion the World Bank Group’s Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative in the months and years to come!” (She smartly omitted, you know, references to literally any other part of the speech.)
Of course, something Ivanka loves almost as much as her dad’s U.N. speech and plugging her own products is talking about the challenges confronting women in business while simultaneously doing absolutely nothing about them. (Conveniently, Ivanka has distanced herself from the fund due to a possible conflict with her work in the White House, which would prevent her “from using her official position to solicit money for a new nonprofit set up to help women, or a for-profit investment fund,” according to the Washington Post.)
But as glowing as as Ivanka’s review of her father’s performance was, Trump’s own chief of staff John Kelly, the man currently tasked with reining in the president (laughable though that might sound), did communicated his dismay at the performance without single word: No one among the audience looked more bereaved than Kelly. In a now highly-memed image pulled from the broadcast of the speech, the chief of staff and former marine corps general is pictured with his head downturned, a hand to his forehead in apparent physical (or emotional) distress while Trump delivered his address. It was the only part of the 41-minute speech more transfixing than Trump’s trademark (and equally highly-memed) hand gesture, thumb and index finger pressed together.
Unlike Ivanka, Kelly, for once, was just expressing what we were all feeling anyways. Even Chelsea Handler, who led the Sundance Women’s March on Washington, felt his pain, writing, “John Kelly and Melania listening to Trump at the UN is all of us.”
Ray Romano describes how he explained an on-screen threesome to his wife:
