Samantha Bee has some thoughts on Ivanka Trump's new working-women's guide to success

(Image credit: Full Frontal/YouTube)

published 12 May 2017

Ivanka Trump's new book, Women Who Work, has gotten mixed reviews. If you want to read a glowing one, you can head on over to the government-financed Voice of America. On this week's Full Frontal, Samantha Bee gave Ivanka's guide to "rules for success" the book-club treatment, and it isn't pretty.

Trump "writes about her struggles as the working mother of a beautiful 10-year-old lifestyle brand," Bee began, and "if there's one thing the author inherited from her dad — besides, you know, absolutely everything — it's his recipe for word salad." She played some clips of Trump speaking at various forums, repeating one word in particular. "Stop using 'architect' as a verb — that's not how you language," Bee said. "Learn how to architect a sentence!"

Still, "if you're not a fan of Ivanka's prose, don't worry — you won't find much of it in this book," she said. "Practically every word that isn't 'I,' 'Trump,' or 'architecting' is cribbed from BrainyQuotes.com, or another self-help book." This has landed Ivanka in some hot water. "Who could have anticipated that confining your research to internet memes would have a downside?" Bee asked, letting Whoopi Goldberg sigh over Ivanka's appropriation of a Toni Morrison quote. And "it takes a special kind of whiteness to take a Maya Angelou line about racism, mangle it, and apply it to asking for a raise," Bee said.

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The examples of life challenges Trump cites, like turning down Anna Wintour's personal invitation for an internship, rubbed Bee the wrong way, too. "If you were raised working poor like I was, this book will inspire you," Bee said. "Specifically, it will inspire you to challenge the next rich woman you see to a broken beer bottle fight."

"Okay, look. Ivanka is smart, polished, and hard-working," Bee concluded. "I truly believe that if she hadn't been Donald Trump's daughter, she would have still been one of the more successful realtors in the southeast Tampa area. But her belief that she's a role model is laughable." Look, "if you want to pickle yourself in the vapid platitudes that didn't help her climb from the very top all the way to the terrifyingly, inappropriately influential," you can buy Women Who Work for $26, Bee said, or you can check it out for free at your local library and "help future borrowers by returning the dust jacket with a better book inside." Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.