President Donald Trump‘s top aides and advisors, including his daughter, Ivanka Trump, have been notably silent following his recent spate of xenophobic tweets asserting that four Congresswomen of color should “go home,” skirting any defense of them but also refusing to condemn the remarks.
When the president made similarly racially insensitive comments after the Charlottesville, Virginia white nationalist march in 2017, many in his administration were quick to condemn Trump’s lackluster response. Gary Cohn, the president’s top financial advisor at the time, said, “This administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups.”
Now, Cohn’s replacement, Larry Kudlow, has refused to comment on Trump’s recent tweets. “That’s way out of my lane,” said Kudlow when asked about his boss’ remarks.
“He’s tweeted what he’s tweeted,” Kudlow added. “You’ll have to talk to him about that.”
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Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, made comments similar to Cohn’s after the Charlottesville rally that led to the death of a counterprotester, saying there was “no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-Nazis.” Her statement was a notable rebuke of her father.
On Monday, Ivanka declined to comment on the president’s remarks towards the House freshmen, which have resulted in outrage among Democrats.
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Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, who was giving an unrelated conference on cryptocurrencies Monday, responded to a question about Trump’s tweets by saying, “I do not find them racist.” He added that the president “speaks for himself.” Mnuchin also defended his boss after the 2017 white nationalist rally.
Many White House officials said that they did not believe that the president’s recent remarks hit at the same “gut level” as did those following the Charlottesville rally, where a counterprotester was killed when a white nationalist drove his car into the crowd. Top administration figures also said that at this point they knew that nothing the president said would stick after the completion of the news cycle, so there was not much need to worry about it.
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