Ivanka Trump’s tweet after the New Zealand mosque massacres weren’t entirely welcome on Friday.
The First Daughter – who also works as an adviser to POTUS on job creation and economic empowerment, workforce development & entrepreneurship – addressed the killing in Christchurch earlier that day in a social media post.
’49 innocent people were slaughtered in their place of worship during the terrorist attack on Christchurch Mosques. We join New Zealand and Muslim communities around the world in condemnation of this evil as we pray for the families of each victim and grieve together,’ she wrote on Twitter.
Ivanka Trump faced criticism for her message about the mosque slayings of 49 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand Friday. Many lashed out due to her father’s denial of white nationalism on the rise
Her tweet wasn’t entirely welcome despite saying she joins the country and Muslims around the world in their grief
Some valued her message. One person wrote: ‘We appreciate your feeling.’ Another added: ‘Prayers to the family.’
But others weren’t as forgiving of the First Family as they pitted her message against Donald Trump’s actions, identifying it as ‘the strongest, most specific condemnation so far from the administration’.
‘Your dad’s ideals inspired the terrorist,’ one user wrote. Another addressed the president’s Muslim travel bans of past years: ‘*As long as their families don’t try to enter the country.’
Ivanka’s message got many reactions that were similar to this one: ‘Tell your father to stop spreading hatred and white supremacist ideology.’
While Ivanka attempted to show solidarity with those who follow Islam, labelled the shooter ‘evil’, and looked at the killings from a more personal angle with consideration for loved ones affected, her father appeared to take a step back in his exclamation.
Some people on Twitter valued her message. One person wrote: ‘We appreciate your feeling’
But others weren’t as forgiving of the First Family but one identified the message as ‘the strongest, most specific condemnation so far from the administration’
Less than an hour before her, the president tweeted: ‘My warmest sympathy and best wishes goes out to the people of New Zealand after the horrible massacre in the Mosques. 49 innocent people have so senselessly died, with so many more seriously injured. The U.S. stands by New Zealand for anything we can do. God bless all!’
Trump then went into a series of tweets about the Mueller report just minutes later.
The president later returned to the platform to thank the ‘Great Republican Senators who bravely voted for Strong Border Security and the WALL’ claiming it will ‘help stop Crime, Human Trafficking, and Drugs entering our Country’.
Shortly after he told his 51.9 million followers he’d been on the phone with the New Zealand’s leader Jacinda Ardern to say he loves the country and that the US stands in solidarity with them and is willing to provide any assistance.
But his earlier Christchurch tweet prompted Twitter users to criticize his handling of white extremists.
‘Your dad’s ideals inspired the terrorist,’ one tweeter wrote, alluding to the shooter’s manifesto mentioning POTUS
Another Twitter user addressed President Donald Trump’s Muslim travel bans of past years
Social media users seemed to point out that the shooter had called Trump a ‘symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose’
One Twitter user posted that as Advisor to POTUS on job creation + economic empowerment, workforce development & entrepreneurship, Ivanka was part of the problem
Actress Mia Farrow replied: ‘The hatred you stoke against Muslims, against immigrants, against the press, against ‘others’- your reluctance to condemn white supremacy and your utter lack of moral leadership, leads to the horrors New Zealand is now enduring.
‘Even in the face of mass murder, you are unwilling to condemn white supremacy. The shooter, your fan, thinks you are ‘a symbol of renewed white identity.’ ‘Warmest sympathy and best wishes’ do not begin to address the hatred you have unleashed.’
As Trump spoke in a ‘ceremony’ in Oval Office to sign veto of Congressional repeal of his emergency declaration at the border he said, ‘I don’t really’, when asked if he’d seen a rise in white nationalism.
In New Zealand Prime Minister Arden was asked if she agreed with his assessment and said simply: ‘No.’
She also said she had asked him for ‘sympathy and love for all Muslim communities’.
But Trump did not condemn white nationalism Friday even after the shooter, Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, had called Trump a ‘symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose’.
Mourners place flowers as they pay their respects at a makeshift memorial near the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, Saturday. New Zealand’s stricken residents reached out to Muslims in a fierce determination to show kindness to a community in pain as a 28-year-old white supremacist stood silently before a judge, accused in mass shootings