Ivanka Trump surprised by "viciousness" against her father, the most vicious president in decades

Impact

In an interview Monday with Fox and Friends, Ivanka Trump — daughter and assistant to President Donald Trump — said she was surprised by the "viciousness" and "ferocity" that greeted her father's presidency.

"There’s a level of viciousness that I was not expecting," Ivanka said. "I was not expecting the intensity of this experience."

Perhaps the viciousness of her father's own presidential campaign could have tipped her off. That the possibility even existed — in Ivanka's mind — of Trump running the cruel and bigoted operation he did and somehow eluding negative backlash is willfully ignorant, at best, and delusional, at worst.

Even for a field as contentious as American politics, the attacks Trump has leveled against his critics have been unusually personal. The New York Times published an ongoing interactive database tracking the people and institutions Trump has insulted on Twitter. The count, so far, is more than 300, and includes figures ranging from media personalities like Megyn Kelly ("dopey" and a "lightweight")'; Arianna Huffington (a "dummy"); Mika Brzezinski ("crazy and very dumb"); and Don Lemon ("dumb as a rock"); to Trump's political opponents: Jeb Bush ("weak" and "really pathetic"); Marco Rubio (a "joke" and a "fraud lightweight"); and John Kasich (a "dummy").

Aside from the insults he's lobbed on social media, Trump has outlined a policy platform that targets specific groups for state-sanctioned punishment, which includes banning Muslim immigration; arresting and deporting undocumented people; and advocating the reinstatement of "stop and frisk," a policing tactic known best for singling out black people and Hispanics for harassment. Trump has also regularly encouraged physical violence against protesters at his rallies.

"That's what we need a little bit more of," Trump said after a protester was attacked at one of his events in Nevada in February 2016.

If the American people revile and reject Trump for the rest of his presidency in response to his behavior, it would be a generous reaction, and likely more than he's earned. But that Ivanka could expect anything less than pure spite after her father's viciousness seems beyond comprehension.