Let's be fair: Voters did not elect Ivanka Trump president of the United States. Despite unreasonably high hopes that she would act as a moderating influence on her father, President Trump, she doesn't make policy. As a newly minted special assistant to the president (in her case, an unpaid official West Wing job), Ivanka Trump should have some formal sway, but unlike her husband, senior adviser Jared Kushner, her areas of influence have not yet been defined.
Still, in an interview for Wednesday's CBS This Morning, Gayle King asked Trump about criticism that she and Kushner are "complicit in what is happening to the White House." Trump suggested a new definition for complicit. "If being complicit is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact, then I'm complicit," she said.
That's not what "complicit" means, but Ivanka wasn't the only person unclear on the definition:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In March, Saturday Night Live also defined "complicit," in a fake perfume ad starring Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka. "Complicit: the fragrance for the woman who could stop all of this, but won't. (Also available in a cologne for Jared.)"
"I don't know what it means to be complicit, but I hope time will prove I have done a good job and that my father's administration is the success I know it will be," Trump told King. "I don't know that the critics who say that of me, if they found themselves in this very unique and unprecedented situation that I am now in, would do any differently than I'm doing."
Coincidentally, Ivanka's brother Eric Trump also made news on Tuesday for his take on a single word, in his case "nepotism." Forbes surfaced an interview Eric Trump gave the magazine in February at Trump Tower, where he and his brother, Don. Jr., now run The Trump Organization for their father. "Nepotism is kind of a factor of life," he said. "We might be here because of nepotism, but we're not still here because of nepotism."
-
Should you add your child to your credit card?The Explainer You can make them an authorized user on your account in order to help them build credit
-
Cracker Barrel crackup: How the culture wars are upending corporate brandingIn the Spotlight Is it 'woke' to leave nostalgia behind?
-
'It's hard to discern what it actually means'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
