Although President Donald Trump entrusted his business operation to his two sons after he was elected, he placed even greater faith and responsibility in his daughter, Ivanka. As a senior adviser to him, someone—possibly the only person—the president completely trusts, she is partially responsible for his legacy in American history.
But does she know what she’s doing? Well… this presidency hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire so far. Which, hey, it’s hard to make the transition to Washington, D.C. But at least Ivanka knows what words are and how to use them, right?
A Twitter thread by a Vice politics editor Eve Peyser shows Ivanka may not have the best grasp of even that fundamental block of language.
https://twitter.com/evepeyser/status/922836526379294727
“Relative” is tortured in that sentence there. Properly, she should have said I try to keep my hours “relatively short.”
Ivanka’s use of “albeit” is not as bad, but it comes across extremely clunky. And if those two were her only botched moments, we wouldn’t think much of it. But there was her infamous “otherwise” moment.
https://twitter.com/evepeyser/status/922836826615898112
“Otherwise,” of course, means except or excluding, so she was implicitly shading her nephew.
Then there was the time she messed up the use of “complicit.” That was a complete disaster.
https://twitter.com/evepeyser/status/922840597215567873
“Juxtaposition” here is fine, but it’s not great.
https://twitter.com/evepeyser/status/922889081289347074
There really isn’t such a thing as “cultural overlay.”
https://twitter.com/evepeyser/status/922889884750307331
But where she struggled tremendously with was “Happy Birthday.”
https://twitter.com/evepeyser/status/922899079239266309
Yep. That is not what “birthday” means.
Ivanka’s grasp on the English language doesn’t really matter, though. Her father has already said he has the best words.