President Donald Trump‘s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump was all smiles as she and husband Jared Kushner attended the opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday.
But as the members of the first family celebrated the controversial relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, protests against the decision turned deadly in Gaza. The Huffington Post reported that Israeli troops shot and killed at least 58 protesters while around 2,700 others were injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Now Trump, 36, and Kushner, 37, are being criticized on social media for celebrating the opening amid the bloodshed.
Comedian Chelsea Handler and others tweeted about the chilling juxtaposition while also raising concerns over Trump and Kushner, two of the president’s most senior advisers, representing the U.S. abroad.
President Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, has reportedly imposed limitations on the couple’s power within the White House recently, after downgrading Kushner’s top secret security clearance in February, Business Insider reported.
“I’m glad Ivanka and Jared could take time away from their busy schedules of not being qualified to represent the US to go represent the US, and celebrate moving the capital in exchange for the adelson’s donations, while 50+ Palestinians have been killed,” Handler wrote.
Former John McCain strategist Steve Schmidt voiced similar criticism, tweeting, “Kushner and Ivanka’s presence and public roles at this Jerusalem embassy opening are outlandish. They are Assistants to the President. They have no business and no rank to be speaking for the country at a geopolitical flash point. We don’t have Princes and princesses in America.”
And The New York Daily News also took aim at Trump and Kushner on its latest cover, referring to Trump as “Daddy’s little ghoul” and writing in the subhead: “55 slaughtered in Gaza, but Ivanka all smiles at Jerusalem embassy unveil.”
Here’s what others are saying on Twitter.
“@IvankaTrump smiles, as blood spills on the streets underneath her! Heartbreaking to read 52 Palestinians, including several teenagers, were dead and at least 1,700 were injured in Gaza,” tweeted Minnesota State Rep. Ilhan Omar.
“Jared and Ivanka partying it up in Jerusalem while Israeli forces massacre Palestinians in Gaza is a level of depravity you can only find in the Trump and Netanyahu administrations,” said another commenter.
