President Trump has taken a jab at Nordstrom department stores through a tweet from his personal account , which was then re-tweeted by the official @
President Trump has taken a jab at Nordstrom department stores through a tweet from his personal account , which was then re-tweeted by the official @POTUS account meant for the office of the president and usually reserved for government issues. He tweet blasted Nordstrom for treating his daughter, Ivanka so unfairly by discontinuing her fashion line.
Nordstrom announced early this week that it would no longer carry Ivanka Trump’s line of clothing and accessories. The president went on Twitter to defend his daughter who is also a close White House adviser.
“My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person, always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!” he tweeted.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer defended the president’s use of the @POTUS handle to discuss his daughter’s business.
“This was less about his family’s business and an attack on his daughter,” Spicer said.
“For someone to take out their concern with his policies on a family member of his is not acceptable and a president has every right as a father to stand up for them,” he said.
Nordstrom responded by repeating that the decision to drop Ivanka Trump items was based on performance. “Over the past year, and particularly in the last half of 2016, sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now,” the company said.
“We’ve had a great relationship with the Ivanka Trump team. We’ve had open conversations with them over the past year to share what we’ve seen and Ivanka was personally informed of our decision in early January,” Nordstrom said.
The tweet lit a fire from the president’s critics who’ve criticized his refusal to satisfy ethics by completely separating himself from his business dealings. Larry Noble, the general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan organization of election law experts, said Trump’s tweet was totally out of line.
“He should not be promoting his daughter’s line, he should not be attacking a company that has business dealings with his daughter, and it just shows the massive amount of problems we have with his business holdings and his family’s business holdings.
“If he was any other government employee, this would be illegal,” Noble said.
He was referring to a law that exempts the president from conflict of interest laws. But Noble said that for Trump, the principle of the conflict of interest rule should still apply.
Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Trump’s actions are a shocking departure from the presidential norm.
“This is absolutely unprecedented. You really don’t see a president using his office to attack an American business, but certainly not for the benefit of his family’s business,” Libowitz said.
Other twitter users used the platform to blast Trump’s comment. Actor and filmmaker Ron Howard said the tweet trivializes the office and suggest he prioritizes family enterprise and monetary gain.
