by Roqeebah Olaoniye

Not to visit the sins of the father on the son, but too often, the Trumps leave us no choice.

Ivanka Trump has adamantly vouched for her father’s empathy towards the injustices faced by women despite the utterances that he’s made publicly including asking reporters if they could imagine “that” being “the face of our next president” (in reference to Carly Fiorina). He also tried to brush off Megyn Kelly’s very valid questions about his history with women during a G.O.P. debate, calling her a hack and saying she was on to him because she “had blood coming out of her…”(another reference to a woman being incapable based on biological features, this time, menstruation).

Yet, Ivanka has tried to make us believe that her father is a great believer in the abilities and strength of women – and not only herself, as his favourite daughter. So you’ll forgive us if we appropriate her “sins” in light of the things that he has said in the past, especially as regards his next favourite subject of discrimination – Islam, Muslims and Middle-Eastern Sunni nations.

It was very surprising to learn that his daughter, Ivanka Trump would receive money from the same set of people to further her initiative to encourage women towards entrepreneurship.

On Sunday, the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim announced a donation of $ 100 million from the Saudi and UAE governments towards a Women Empowerment Fund inspired and proposed by Ivanka Trump to the global finance body. The Fund aims to champion female entrepreneurs across the globe.

The main critics of the otherwise laudable move have pointed out the fact that Ivanka, having privately solicited/negotiated with the two countries for the funds while in Saudi Arabia on State business, (Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner are officially part of Trump’s inner cabinet and both were on the trip with him) put her in a compromised situation.

Others have criticised the move as hypocritical on account of alleged discriminatory regimes against women in Saudi where supposedly barbaric laws preclude them from driving, working with men, or getting married without a male guardian’s permission.

What stuck out to us though is the fact that Trump has often been extremely caustic in his criticisms of Saudi Arabia and those Americans who receive charitable donations from the Kingdom. He even went as far as to put out a photo of a reporter wedged between Saudi men in a bid to discredit her as a friend of the enemies. So it really is shocking that his own star child, Ivanka, will turn around to seek funds from this Kingdom that wants “women as slaves”.

In a 2016 post via Facebook, Trump said of Saudi Arabia and the Clinton Foundation’s ties to the Kingdom:

“Saudi Arabia and many of the countries that gave vast amounts of money to the Clinton Foundation want women as slaves and to kill gays. Hillary must return all money from such countries!”

During an October general election debate in Las Vegas, Trump went further to describe the Clinton foundation as a “criminal enterprise”.

He said: “Saudi Arabia giving $25 million, Qatar, all of these countries… You talk about women and women’s rights? So these are people that push gays off business — off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly. And yet you take their money… won’t you give back the money you’ve taken from certain countries that treat certain groups of people so terrible?”

The only question to ask now is: won’t Trump return the $100 million to people “that kill women and treat women horribly” now that his daughter is in Hillary’s shoes? Or is this just another case of the Chinese “currency manipulators” who suddenly stopped being the bad guys after Trump became President of America?