Sarah Huckabee Sanders overshadowed by Ivanka

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders doesn’t appear to be enjoying the Winter Olympics as much as everyone else.

While Ivanka Trump cheered excitedly as Team USA’s Kyle Mack won silver in the men’s snowboard big air, Sanders didn’t even appear to be watching the action.

The First Daughter, was sat in the middle of her group, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Kim Jung-sook, on one side and International Olympic Committee member and 1998 ice hockey gold medalist Angela Ruggiero, on another. 

Sanders was sat at the edge of their group, next to Ruggiero, looking rather dour.

While Ivanka Trump cheered excitedly as Team USA’s Kyle Mack won silver in the men’s snowboard big air, Sanders didn’t even appear to be watching the action

The First Daughter, was sat in the middle of her group, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Kim Jung-sook, on one side and International Olympic Committee member and 1998 ice hockey gold medalist Angela Ruggiero, on another. Sanders was sat at the edge of their group 

At one point, Ivanka even had to reach across to try and get the attention of Sanders who was looking off into the distance. 

The White House official arrived in Pyeongchang, in South Korea, on Friday alongside Ivanka, a senior adviser to the president.

But Ivanka has very much been the star of the show since arriving in the country, and will also lead the U.S. delegation at the closing ceremony Sunday.

Even during their meal with the South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Sanders was overshadowed by the tall, blond First Daughter.

As Ivanka arrived for dinner at South Korea’s presidential Blue House, she was presented with a custom pair of stunning, red embroidered slippers for the guest of honor. In Korean tradition, shoes are not worn inside so slippers are worn instead. 

Sanders speaks during a press conference at an Olympic hospitality house for the United States in PyeongChang, northeastern South Korea, 24 February 

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (L), seated alongside US Senator James Risch (R), speaks during a press conference 

Meanwhile Sanders was handed a pair of standard issue leather slippers, which she slipped on without much comment.

The first daughter’s arrival in the country is a deliberate riposte to North Korea after Kim Jong-un sent his sister Kim Yo-jong to the opening ceremony of the Winter Games, along with an army of 100 cheerleaders, completely upstaging Vice President Mike Pence in the process.

Ivanka responded saying she was in South Korea to ‘reaffirm our bonds of friendship and partnership’ but also ‘to reaffirm our commitment to our maximum-pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized,’ according to a media pool report.

Sanders echoed her words later, saying that the president wouldn’t be ‘soft or weak’ on Pyongyang, despite an apparent Korean detente as the North takes part in the Winter Games, just 30 miles (50 kilometres) from the peninsula’s heavily armed border.

‘We’re going to continue a campaign of maximum pressure,’ Sanders told journalists in Pyeongchang. ‘The latest sanctions were the strongest that we have had on North Korea.’

‘The latest sanctions were the strongest that we have had on North Korea,’ she said.

‘Hopefully we’ll see a change on the part of the North Koreans to start to denuclearise the peninsula, that’s what our focus is.

She added: ‘I can tell you the president won’t make the mistakes the previous administration has and be soft or weak.’

North Korea’s delegation at the closing ceremony will be headed by top general Kim Yong Chol, who is widely blamed for a series of attacks against the South including the 2010 sinking of a warship, with the loss of 46 lives.

US Vice-President Mike Pence awkwardly sat almost directly in front of Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, at the Olympics opening ceremony, where athletes from the two Koreas marched together.

But Sanders said she believed the seating arrangements would be different on Sunday as the curtain falls on the Games at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium.

Ivanka Trump (C )wife of Korean President Moon Jae-in, Kim Jung-sook (R), White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (L)and US IOC member Angela Ruggiero (2nd,L) watch the final of the men’s snowboard big air event at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre 

‘As of now we don’t understand that to be the plan,’ she said, when asked if Ivanka Trump would be sitting close to the North Koreans. ‘We have no planned meetings or interactions with North Korea.’

Asked whether Ivanka Trump would shake hands or perform some other ‘polite’ gesture with the North Koreans, Sanders said: ‘As of now there’s nothing planned.’

Her visit comes after President Trump claimed to have rolled out ‘the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country’ including a shipping blockade.

‘If the sanctions don’t work, we’ll have to go to phase two. Phase two may be a very rough thing,’ the president said in Washington, without elaborating.

Sanders, when asked if the US would use force to impose sanctions, replied: ‘I’m not going to get into specifics’.