Of all the public figures and Hollywood stars who’ve been using social media to protest Donald Trump and the policies of his month-old presidency, Chelsea Clinton has emerged as one of his most relentless — and possibly formidable — critics.
With a mix of mild sarcasm, exasperation and humanitarian concern, the former first daughter daily delivers sharp commentary on Trump to her 1.5 million Twitter followers. On Tuesday, for example, Chelsea issued a series of tweets decrying the Trump administration’s possible plans to rescind an Obama White House policy that protected the rights of transgender students in public schools.
After White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said it should be up to states, not the federal government, on whether it’s OK to discriminate against LGBTQ people, Chelsea tweeted: “Discrimination as a states rights issue so 20th century….right? Hopefully? Please? I just keep thinking is this really happening in 2017?!”
Discrimination as a states rights issue so 20th century….right? Hopefully? Please? I just keep thinking is this really happening in 2017?! https://t.co/Erk6ee7H3f
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 21, 2017
Earlier this week, the 36-year-old board member of her parents’ Clinton Foundation also blasted the Trump administration for its failure to take a hard stand against anti-Semitism. She also tweeted links to stories about the rise and fall of former Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos — a one-time star Breitbart columnist and protege of Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon — and a report showing that the teen suicide rate in the United States had fallen after the legalization of same-sex marriage, with the biggest impact being among gay, lesbian and bisexual kids.
And like a lot of Twitter users, Chelsea has had fun with some of the president’s false or nonsensical statements, such as his assertion Saturday night that something terrible had happened in Sweden the night before. Since no tragedy occurred in Sweden on Friday, Chelsea decided to highlight the Trump administration’s tendency to invent terrorist attacks.
What happened in Sweden Friday night? Did they catch the Bowling Green Massacre perpetrators?
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 19, 2017
As Mashable writer Rebecca Ruiz points out, the former first daughter must tread carefully in how she expresses her objection to Trump’s policies; she can’t come off sounding like a sore loser because her mother Hillary Clinton lost the election.
Not surprisingly, Chelsea’s tweets have met with criticism from Trump supporters, trolling her with reminders about her mother’s defeat or her family’s own share of controversies and scandals. But she seems undeterred.
And the one person who hasn’t yet lashed out at Chelsea has been her chief target, the president himself. Now that seems surprising, given that Trump, the celebrity business mogul-turned leader of the free world, has never been one to hold back against critics — especially if those critics are female. Cases in point: Rosie O’Donnell, Meryl Streep or Megyn Kelly.
As a presidential candidate, Trump certainly didn’t hold back from slinging some pretty toxic mud at his female opponent. Via Twitter, he gave Chelsea’s mother the nickname “Crooked Hillary” and during the presidential debates he called the former secretary of state a “nasty woman” and paraded in front of her the women who had accused her husband of sexual harassment or assault.
But Chelsea may have one protection that these other female Trump critics, including her mother, don’t have.
That’s her reported New York high-society friendship with Trump’s favorite child, daughter Ivanka Trump. If the president is aware of Chelsea’s criticisms of him — including of his tendency to unleash early morning tweet storms to set the daily news agenda — and he has refrained from launching a Twitter feud with her, it could be out of deference to his daughter.
Actually, if Trump shows deference to Ivanka in regards to Chelsea, this may be one of the few instances of him moderating his tone or position because it might upset his daughter. Otherwise, he’s generally disappointed those who hoped that Ivanka would be a moderating influence on her father, given her reportedly socially liberal views on women’s rights, the environment and other issues.
Throughout the campaign, both Chelsea and Ivanka said their friendship would survive whatever happened Nov. 8. Ivanka said in a “20/20” interview in late January that she still considered Chelsea a “very good friend” since long before the blistering campaign, but admits the two hadn’t spoken since.
Meanwhile, Ivanka may be pretty busy these days, having re-located from Manhattan to Washington D.C., where her husband Jared Kushner works in her father’s White House and where she is set to take up some vague policy role in her father’s administration.
Whatever the status of her friendship with Ivanka, Chelsea isn’t letting up on Ivanka’s father.
And as Mashable’s Ruiz points out, Chelsea’s politically charged tweets are something new. Throughout her mother’s campaign and leading up to Trump’s inauguration, Chelsea limited her Twitter feed to mostly mild comments about global health, scientific research or child development. It could be that she, like her parents, or like Barack and Michelle Obama, was trying to respect a peaceful transition of power.
But since Trump took office and has talked about repealing the Affordable Care Act or moved to enact a ban on refugees and immigrants from Muslim-dominated countries, Chelsea has shown a new, feisty taste for Twitter commentary. Whatever previously held her back doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
As Ruiz says: “Instead of getting embroiled in Twitter fights with egg avatars, (Chelsea) focuses on her targets for the day, like fighting the refugee and Muslim ban, answering the global gag rule executive order with scientific research and writing the verbal equivalent of a face-palm response to Trump’s incoherent speech at a Black History Month gathering.”
And following Trump’s rambling press conference last week, where he attacked the media as purveyors of fake news and lashed out at a Jewish reporter’s questions about the rise of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, Chelsea supplied the president with the answer she thinks he should have provided: “One would think he would have thought of an answer since yesterday,” she said. “Here’s one: There’s no place for any bigotry, ever, in America.”
One would think he would have thought of an answer since yesterday. Here's one: There's no place for any bigotry, ever, in America. https://t.co/XBtcgFnRxd
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 16, 2017
Chelsea has several key strategies she sticks to in her Twitter criticisms of Trump, according to Ruiz. They include: asking incisive rhetorical questions to make a point, offering up just the right amount of sarcasm, doing retweets of media articles and reports she considers noteworthy, posting news about good people doing good things, and focusing her attacks on Trump’s policies, not on Trump himself:
No. These "strategies" will not shield Trump from the responsibility of taking away Dreamers' & our country's dreams https://t.co/1kCoqcy9Ri
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 17, 2017
Very disappointing – but not surprising – to see these changes on a government website aimed at educating kids abt the environment & energy https://t.co/7rWssYKvtk
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 17, 2017
It will be interesting to see where Chelsea’s new political feistiness leads. As Ruiz points out, the former first daughter is just about a month into challenging the president’s administration and policies.
“In that short time, though,” Ruiz said, “(Chesea is) becoming what Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama can’t be yet: a woman who doesn’t hold office but possesses both political power and the ability to speak forcefully about threats to American democracy.”
