Memories: Ivanka Trump Demanded the White House Squash a (True) Story About Her Flashing a Hot Dog Vendor

We hope it doesn’t come as a surprise to hear this, but something people should know at long last is that when she was working in the White House, Ivanka Trump did not end hunger or empower women or create 14 million jobs. Instead, most of her time was spent cultivating the image of someone who might do all those things, when in reality her nine-to-fives revolved around cosplaying as a person who had any business advising the president, offering uniquely bad advice, and somehow always being on vacation when s–t hit the fan.

Not surprisingly, Princess Purses believed that the White House press team existed to serve her and her ambitions, and apparently quite often expected it to “siphon off some of its resources to defend and support her,” according to former press secretary Stephanie Grisham’s new book, I’ll Take Your Questions Now. “She obviously had a Google alert set for her name and would go to Sean Spicer whenever a story about her popped up that she didn’t like, which was most of them, expecting us to push back,” Grisham writes. “That happened even if 90 percent of a story was positive. She would focus on obscure small facts that she didn’t like or claimed weren’t true.… Image was everything in the Trump family, and Ivanka worked very hard to convey an image of perfection.”

According to Grisham, one story the former first daughter really didn’t like involved her flashing a hot dog vendor, which she presumably believed didn’t fit in with the trajectory she had laid out with Jared wherein she would one day be the first female president. Initially reported by Vanity Fair’s Emily Jane Fox in her 2018 book, Born Trump, the story was recounted in detail by Trump’s childhood best friend Lysandra Ohrstrom shortly after the 2020 election. As Ohrstrom writes:

One of the earliest memories I have of Ivanka from before we were friends is when she blamed a fart on a classmate. Some time later, she goaded me and a few other girls into flashing our breasts out the window of our classroom in what has since been labeled the “flashing the hot dog man” incident in Chapin lore. Ivanka had basically been the ringleader, but she pleaded her innocence to the headmistress and got off scot-free. The rest of us were suspended. 

According to Fox, Trump was ultimately not asked to return to Chapin, not because of the hot dog incident, but because the school was annoyed with how many classes she missed while trying to become a model. “She traveled to Mar-a-Lago to put together her modeling portfolio and lied to administrators about why she was missing school,” Fox recounts in her book.

Anyway, Ivanka would prefer if these stories were no longer discussed and for the press to focus on other matters, but, like, not about how she and her husband made up to $640 million while working in the West Wing or how they reportedly made their Secret Service details go to extreme lengths to “find a bathroom.” Acceptable topics would be about how she’s just a few short years away from returning to the White House in her own right and how Jared is just putting the finishing touches on his plan for world peace. Anything else, run by her office for approval. Sound good? Great.

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Somewhere in Mar-a-Lago, a busboy just got a 47-minute earful about how rich Trump is

Apologies to everyone else who will have to hear this for all eternity. Per the Washington Post:

In 1982, when Forbes magazine launched its rich list, a compilation of the 400 wealthiest Americans, a young Donald Trump made the coveted roster, but only to reflect that he held some ill-defined portion of his family’s real estate fortune. The publicity-hungry developer launched a decades-long campaign to gain a permanent position on the list, claiming an ever-ballooning net worth that would push him up the ranks of the nation’s richest people. Money, Trump said, was how people “keep score” in life.

This week, for the first time in more than a quarter-century, Forbes dropped Trump from the list entirely, reporting that the former president is now worth about $2.5 billion — the same as last year, but as the rich get richer, stasis won’t cut it on the rich list. Trump’s worth is down about $600 million since the start of the pandemic, the magazine reported, leaving him $400 million short of qualifying for this year’s Forbes 400.

As the Post notes, Trump has long been so obsessed with making the Forbes list that he was known to call editors claiming to be “John Barron,” a fake PR man he said was representing him, and demand to be moved up several places higher, in case you were worried there was ever a time this man could be considered relatively sane. “[W]hile many of the super-rich wanted to keep their names off the ranking, Trump was desperate to scale it,” Jonathan Greenberg, who compiled the early lists, wrote in 2018.

As for falling off it this year, Forbes tough but fairly points out that he has only himself to blame:

When federal ethics officials pressed Trump to sell his real estate assets before he assumed the presidency, Trump’s refusal to do so robbed him of the chance not only to avoid conflicts of interest, but also to have invested his assets in the stock market, which Forbes concludes would have raised his value to about $7 billion. By instead holding on to his family company and its properties, he lost significant value during his presidency, Forbes reported.

Trump does not appear to have publicly commented on the news yet but when he does he’ll undoubtedly claim the whole thing is rigged and that he’s as rich as ever, based on imaginary metrics. In 2009, for example, he claimed his name alone was worth $5 billion, and that it can go up or down depending on the mood he’s in. No, really.

“My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with my feelings, even my own feelings,” Trump said in a deposition in a libel suit he filed against Tim O’Brien, who wrote TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald. “. . . My own feelings affects my value to myself.”

Did you know that if you’re the governor of Idaho, and you leave the state, all your power automatically goes to the lieutenant governor?

And if said lieutenant governor is an unhinged far-right Republican, she can just start issuing anti-vaccine executive orders, among other things? Seems like something that should perhaps be reconsidered! Per the Guardian:

Idaho’s Republican governor, Brad Little, temporarily left the state on Tuesday on government business and his deputy, Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, immediately began issuing rightwing orders while she was temporarily holding executive power – including a ban on coronavirus vaccine mandates. That same afternoon, McGeachin issued an executive order – as acting governor – banning state officials from requiring what she called “Covid-19 vaccine passports” from employees…Little, who was in Texas meeting with nine other Republican governors over concerns about Joe Biden’s handling of migration at the US-Mexico border, promised to quickly reverse McGeachin’s order as soon as he returned to Idaho.

“I am in Texas performing my duties as the duly elected governor of Idaho, and I have not authorized the lieutenant governor to act on my behalf,” Little said in a statement shortly after arriving in Texas on Tuesday. “I will be rescinding and reversing any actions taken by the lieutenant governor when I return,” he added.

Anti-vaccine measures weren’t the only stunt a drunk-with-power McGeachin tried to pull on Tuesday. Idaho’s number two, who, per the Guardian, “has associations with far-right militia members,” also attempted to activate the Idaho national guard and deploy troops to the southern border to crack down on migrants trying to cross into the U.S.— 2,000 miles from her state. “As of Wednesday, my constitutional authority as governor affords me the power of activating the Idaho national guard,” McGeachin wrote to major general Michael Garshak in a letter. In response, Garshak shot down the request, writing: “I am unaware of any request for Idaho national guard assistance under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) from Texas or Arizona … As you are aware, the Idaho National Guard is not a law enforcement agency.”

Bill DeBlasio thinks he could be the next governor of New York

No one else seems to, but god love him, the guy believes in himself! Per the New York Times:

Mayor Bill de Blasio has begun to tell people privately that he plans to run for governor of New York next year, according to three people with direct knowledge of his conversations with fellow Democrats and donors. Mr. de Blasio, who has been a polarizing figure during his two terms in office, has also sounded out trusted former aides about their interest in working on a potential campaign, according to two people who are familiar with those contacts, and has made other overtures to labor leaders about a possible bid.

Mr. de Blasio’s move toward a possible run for governor comes even as the city he now leads faces extraordinary challenges and an uncertain future, and should he enter what may be a crowded and well-financed field, he would face significant hurdles. His approval ratings in New York City have been low, according to the sparse polling that is publicly available, and he faces deep skepticism elsewhere in the state — an environment similar to the one he confronted, unsuccessfully, in his 2020 presidential bid. A run for governor would be contrary to the better judgment of even some people he considers allies, as well as that of many party leaders across the state.

During the NYC Democratic primary this year, candidates were asked to raise their hand if they’d accept an endorsement from DeBlasio, and just one person did. And if that’s not clear enough, ask Rich Schaffer, the chairman of the county’s Democratic committee, what he thinks of BdB’s chances. “Osama bin Laden is probably more popular in Suffolk County than Bill de Blasio,” Schaffer said Monday. “De Blasio, I would say, would have zero support if not negative out here.”

Elsewhere!

Finance executives say the risk of a default is already damaging the economy (NYT)

House committee investigating January 6 can’t find Trump aide to serve subpoena (CNN)

Why whistleblower Frances Haugen is Facebook’s worst nightmare (CNN)

FDA Is Reviewing Data on Mixing and Matching Boosters, Fauci Says (Bloomberg)

CDC director warns the U.S. is at risk of a severe flu season this year (CNBC)

Florida woman got $3.4M COVID grant she never applied for (AP)

Texas man sentenced to 15 months in prison for posting Covid-19 hoax on social media (CNN)

Real Phone Number Featured in ‘Squid Game’ Leads to Prank-Call Apocalypse (WSJ)

This Instagram account is nothing but pictures of people’s half-finished Dunkin’ orders abandoned around the city. It’s oddly artistic. (Boston Globe)

You’re snacking more when working from home too, right? (Fortune)

Fat Bear Week has a winner: 480 Otis is the chunkiest champ for the fourth time (Washington Post)

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