#NepotismBarbie Trends on Twitter After Ivanka Posts Video Touting New ‘Skills-Based’ Fed Hiring Standards

Sarah RumpfJun 26th, 2020, 4:17 pm
 

On Friday, the White House announced that President Donald Trump would be signing an executive order “to transform the federal hiring process—and replace one-size-fits-all, degree-based hiring with skills-based hiring,” and to introduce the initiative, they posted a video of Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter.

As a refresher, Ivanka Trump is 38 years old, with a degree from Wharton, her father’s alma mater, which she attended after two years at Georgetown, and before that, two of the poshest private schools in America.

Other than a brief stint after college with a real estate investment trust and several years modeling, her career has been comprised of the following:

  • Working for her father’s company, the Trump Organization, which she joined as Executive Vice President of Development and Acquisitions at the age of 24 (until she had to resign because of federal ethics rules);
  • Co-hosting the Miss Teen USA Pageant, which was partially owned by her father;
  • Appearing on her father’s television show, The Apprentice;
  • Selling “Ivanka Trump” branded clothing, jewelry, handbags, shoes, and other accessories;
  • Releasing two books, both of which were ghost-written;
  • Serving as a board member for her father’s namesake philanthropy, the Donald J. Trump Foundation (until the foundation was dissolved after the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit against it for “persistently illegal conduct” regarding the management of the foundation’s money);
  • Working on her father’s presidential campaign; and
  • Serving as a senior adviser in her father’s White House.

Oh, and let’s not forget her 2010 cameo with husband Jared Kushner on Gossip Girl.

Ah, yes, the merits of skills-based hiring.

Anyway…Twitter had a predictably riotous time responding to the White House’s announcement, and the use of Ivanka Trump as spokesperson drew special mockery. New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi wrote the pool report for the presser announcing the executive order, and noted that Trump’s white and blue dress was by London-based designer Suzannah, and retails for $2,077.

#NepotismBarbie became a nationally trending topic shortly after the video was posted.

Some of the tweets went beyond mockery, and actually fact-checked the announcement itself, such as this tweet from Andrew Feinberg, who tweeted that federal law already prohibited requiring a degree for many federal jobs:

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.