Us Weekly‘s latest issue features Ivanka Trump on its cover, along with the declarative headline, “Ivanka Takes A Stand: Why I Disagree With My Dad.” The seemingly juicy story is misleading, however, as the first daughter never sat down for an interview with the magazine.
Ivanka serves as an unpaid adviser to her father, President Donald Trump, and many believe the businesswoman often tries to sway his opinion on certain social issues, including LGBT and women’s rights. The magazine also suggests that Ivanka opposes her dad’s positions on global warming and the Syrian refugee crisis. Whether or not these details are entirely true, Us Weekly didn’t gather this information through an exclusive interview, despite its cover making it appear that way.
Instead, the publication aggregated comments from Ivanka’s prior interviews with other media outlets and combined them to create a narrative about her protesting the president. To back up this story, the magazine first quotes a former Trump Organization VP as telling Harper’s Bazaar back in September (before her father was elected), “She knows exactly what to say to get what she wants.” The publication then goes on to cite an April interview with NBC in which Ivanka said, “I think there is a global humanitarian crisis… and we have to solve it.” This comment, according to the outlet, was the first daughter’s way of sending a message to her father about not banning refugees from entering the United States.
The magazine also goes on to borrow out-of-context remarks Ivanka made in recent interviews with the New York Times and CBS to further validate its report. But while it might very well be true that Ivanka disagrees with her dad on certain issues, Us Weekly‘s new cover story doesn’t provide any exclusive insight into the situation. Gossip Cop checked in with a White House official, who confirms that Ivanka never spoke to the publication and its cover story is simply a bait-and-switch.
Unfortunately, this tactic of selling a magazine based on a misleading cover isn’t new. As Gossip Cop reported, Jennifer Garner called out People magazine last week for publishing a deceptive cover making it appear as if she had participated in an interview about her divorce from Ben Affleck. So, feel free to shell out $4.99 on the latest issue of Us Weekly, but don’t be disappointed when you can’t find a new interview with Ivanka inside.