Jared and Ivanka Try to Reenter Polite Society, Are Promptly Told to F–k Off

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner spent their entire tenure in Washington attempting to cast themselves as people who not only belonged there, but who would one day return to D.C. not as daughter and son-in-law of the commander in chief but as president and first man in their own right. (Yes, as Michael Wolff reported in Fire and Fury, the duo, harboring off-the-chart delusions, “made an earnest deal” that “if sometime in the future the opportunity arose, [Ivanka would] be the one to run for president,” in an exchange that we can only assume involved Ivanka putting her finger to Kushner’s lips and whispering, “It’ll be me. I’ll be the president.”) So when ’Vanky’s dad decided to incite a violent insurrection on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election—and Princess Purses, badly miscalculating the situation, called the angry mob “patriots”—it didn’t jibe with the look they were going for. Subsequently, the couple fled to Florida in an apparent attempt to lay low.

And for the past 10 months, save for some presumably orchestrated photo-ops, they mostly have. But for people who clearly view themselves as royalty, not being able to attend society gatherings obviously chafes. With the one-year anniversary of that pesky little attack on democracy coming up, they apparently think enough time has passed that their association with one of the worst days in U.S. history is but a distant memory, and it’s now appropriate to slither back onto the scene, as they did Tuesday night.

Per The Hollywood Reporter:

On Tuesday evening in Miami, the couple made their first major red-carpet appearance since they closed out respective tenures as part of Donald Trump’s White House team by stepping out at the Louis Vuitton show. The Hollywood Reporter spotted the couple mingling during the preshow reception and noticed they had reserved seats in the front row, which also hosted a number of A-listers and boldfaced names like Kim Kardashian West, Kanye West (who now goes by Ye), Pharrell Williams, Bella Hadid, and more. The Louis Vuitton presentation, which coincides with Art Basel, is especially high-profile because it comes two days after the death of Virgil Abloh, the celebrated designer and artistic director for the brand’s menswear collection. According to the luxury house, tonight’s show, “Virgil Was Here,” was presented in “loving memory” of Abloh, paying “tribute to the life and legacy of a creative genius” while also unveiling his designs for the Spring-Summer 2022 collection. Rappers Kid Cudi, Offset, and Quavo were among the models.

It’s not the first time the Trump and Vuitton worlds have collided. In October 2019, Donald and Ivanka Trump flew to Texas for a ribbon-cutting ceremony alongside Bernard Arnault, founder and chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The ceremony unveiled a new Louis Vuitton workshop in a rural area not far from Fort Worth. According to The New York Times, Arnault made a point to separate politics from their luxury fashion business by saying, “I am not here to judge his types of policies. I have no political role. I am a business person. I try to tell him what I think for the success of the economy of the country, and the success of what we are doing.”

In a New York Times report last November, fashion designer Batsheva Hay predicted it would be tough for the couple to make fashion a part of any social outings. “The fashion world is pretty ready to shun her,” Hay told reporter Ginia Bellafante. “No one is going to lend Ivanka clothing—she’ll have to buy it covertly at retail.”

The apparent longtime friendliness with Arnault, combined with this being Florida, and not, say, New York City, where the Trump name is near-universally loathed, seemingly made the event a relatively safe space for the couple; it does not appear that they had champagne thrown in their faces or their clothes spattered with paint intended as a stand-in for the blood of the Americans who died of COVID on Donald (and Jared’s) watch. But it definitely sounds as though many people would prefer they go back into hiding!

“These fascist collaborators should be made to feel unwelcome everywhere they go,” one Twitter user wrote in response to the news. “Do not normalize,” said journalist Kim Masters. “Louis Vuitton giving Ivanka and Jared front-row seats to a show commemorating the late Virgil Abloh is just too much,” tweeted The Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern. “I would prefer they stayed in hiding for the rest of their lives. Sick of looking at either one of them,” said another commentator.

In other Javanka news, The New York Times reported on Friday that Kushner’s Saudi ass-kissing and murder-excusing may soon pay off in the form of a very large check for his new investment firm. Also this weekend, former Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen told Meet The Press that New York prosecutors, who have already indicted the ex-president’s business, are likely turning to the family now. “They are going after Donald. They’re going after Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, a whole slew of individuals,” he predicted.

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Remember that time everyone suspected Trump debated Joe Biden knowing he had COVID?

According to his former chief of staff, everyone was right. Per The Guardian:

Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 three days before his first debate against Joe Biden, the former president’s fourth and last chief of staff has revealed in a new book. Mark Meadows also writes that though he knew each candidate was required “to test negative for the virus within seventy two hours of the start time…Nothing was going to stop [Trump] from going out there.” Trump, Meadows says in the book, returned a negative result from a different test shortly after the positive.

Meadows says Trump’s positive result on September 26 was a shock to a White House that had just staged a triumphant Rose Garden ceremony for the Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett—an occasion now widely considered to have been a COVID super-spreader event. Despite the president looking “a little tired” and suspecting a “slight cold,” Meadows says he was “content” that Trump traveled that evening to a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania. But as Marine One lifted off, Meadows writes, the White House doctor called. “Stop the president from leaving,” Meadows says Sean Conley told him. “He just tested positive for COVID.” It wasn’t possible to stop Trump but when he called from Air Force One, his chief of staff gave him the news. “Mr. President,” Meadows said, “I’ve got some bad news. You’ve tested positive for COVID-19.”

According to Meadows, Trump received a negative test from a Binax rapid test shortly after his positive test, and because Trump was going to Trump, he just decided to go with the negative result and act like he was fine and not a disease vector. (Incidentally, he reportedly choose not to do a PCR test, which was the recommended protocol.) Trump, Meadows writes, viewed the negative test as “full permission to press on as if nothing had happened,” though his chief of staff “instructed everyone in his immediate circle to treat him as if he was positive” throughout the Pennsylvania trip. “I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks,” Meadows writes.

Of course, such concern was not afforded to the people with whom Trump came into contact with over the next several days, including not just Biden but gold star families, who the then president later suggested got him sick. On October 2, after milling about with who knows how many people, not to mention standing on a stage and shouting at Joe Biden for 90 minutes, Trump once again tested positive for the virus, and this time headed to the hospital.

On Wednesday, via a spokesperson, Trump dubbed Meadows’ claims “FAKE NEWS,” because what else was he going to say? “It’s true, I’m a huge asshole”?

In related news…

Republicans vow to shut down the government unless Dems agree to let people die of COVID

What’s the main difference between Democrats and Republicans? One party wants their constituents to live and the other, not so much. Per Politico:

Conservatives on both sides of the Capitol are privately plotting to force a government shutdown Friday in an effort to defund the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on the private sector, multiple GOP sources told Playbook. Capitalizing on a last-minute scramble to fund the government, a group of Senate conservatives is planning to object to quick consideration of a stopgap measure to extend funding into early 2022 unless Democratic leaders agree to deny money to enforce the mandate. Because of the tight schedule—and Senate rules that require unanimous consent to move quickly—the senators believe they’ll be able to drag out the process well past midnight Friday, when funding officially expires.

“I’m sure we would all like to simplify the process for resolving the [continuing resolution], but I can’t facilitate that without addressing the vaccine mandates,” Senator Mike Lee told Politico. Even if the tactic fails, Politico notes that GOP Senator Mike Braun plans to force a vote to disapprove and nullify Biden’s vaccine mandate as early as next week, and apparently “already has all 50 Republicans lined up to back the issue, and they’re hoping to flip one moderate Democrat.” All of this, of course, comes against the backdrop of the omicron variant, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday had been detected in California, and which some scientists believe may be even more contagious than delta.

Elsewhere!

Stacey Abrams is running for Georgia governor in 2022 (AJC)

Ex-White House official says Trump showed “flagrant lack of regard for public health” in keeping positive COVID test secret (CNN)

Planned Parenthood Los Angeles says hack breached 400,000 patients’ information (Washington Post)

Google Temp, Fired for Being “Ungoogley,” Files Complaint (Bloomberg)

Accuser at Ghislaine Maxwell trial testifies Jeffrey Epstein took her to meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago when she was 14 (Bloomberg)

Ilhan Omar airs death threat and presses Republicans on “anti-Muslim hatred” (Guardian)

After Former Chief of Staff Says Trump Tested Positive for COVID-19 Before Debate in Cleveland, Cleveland Clinic Looks Even Worse (CleveScene)

Home Alone house is now available to book on Airbnb (NME)

World’s first living robots can now reproduce, scientists say (CNN)

Man Claims “Big Snake” Invited Him to Enter Neighbor’s Home at 2 a.m. (TSG)

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