Obama aides criticize Ivanka Trump sitting in on G20 meeting

Former aides to President Barack Obama criticized Ivanka Trump on Saturday for briefly taking her father’s place at the table during a G-20 summit session.

“Sort of the whole point of America was that governmental authority was bestowed by the people not by birth,” added Dan Pfeiffer, Obama’s former senior advisor on strategy and communications.

If another G20 leader put their daughter or son in the chair we’d be talking about democratic backsliding.

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) July 8, 2017

Sort of the whole point of America was that governmental authority was bestowed by the people not by birth https://t.co/2sE1a6Vlcr

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) July 8, 2017

{mosads}

A photo circulated on Twitter Saturday showing Ivanka Trump sitting at the table next to British Prime Minister Theresa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping in place of her father.

Cabinet officials usually replace the president at sessions when a stand-in is needed. But Ivanka Trump, an official adviser to the president, took his place instead.

“Ivanka was sitting in the back and then briefly joined the main table when the president had to step out,” a White House official said in response to the photo.

The topic of the summit was one of Ivanka Trump’s projects, the World Bank finance initiative for women entrepreneurs. 

Updated: 4:52 p.m.