Ivanka Trump Praises Dad For 'Rebuilding Military', Twitter Claps Back

Presidential daughter Ivanka Trump should be praised for her role in helping pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 that contains a provision for paid parental leave for federal employees. The provision requires 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all federal employees and was approved by the Senate on December 17.

She is, however, raising eyebrows -- and igniting negative Twitter feedback -- for daring to dive into the unfamiliar waters of national defense where she's not known to have any expertise in. At the ungodly hour of 3:41 a.m. on Monday, Ivanka posted two consecutive tweets. The first read:

"In signing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) President @realdonaldtrump is rebuilding of our military, authorizing major investment in vital equipment for our forces, including:"

While the second enumerated the U.S. weapons systems funded by NDAA 2019:

• F-35, F/A-18, and F-15EX combat aircraft
• UH-60M Blackhawks, AH-64 Apaches, MH-47G Chinooks, CH-53K King Stallions
• Abrams tanks and Stryker combat vehicles
• Virginia-class submarines, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, a guided missile frigate, amphibious ships, and more.

The question now is, "Why?"

Kate Brannen, editorial director at Just Security, a forum on law, rights, and U.S. national security, tweeted there's nothing new or startling about these weapons systems that have been in service for decades. "Where @IvankaTrump tweets a list of things that have been in the defense budget for as long as I have been covering the Pentagon. This is her example of her dad 'rebuilding the military'."

To her credit, Ivanka got the technical specs of all these weapons systems right. That surprising bit of accuracy led someone to tweet in response, "Yeah...you want us to believe you really wrote all this at 6:30 in the morning? Nope..."

Rumors persist about Ivanka's ultimate ambition of succeeding her father as president, and perhaps going for this goal as early as 2024. If this be the case, Ivanka has to burnish her national security credentials and revealing a familiarity with major U.S. weapons systems is a good way of attaining this aim.

Ivanka's presidential ambitions were brought to the fore over the weekend on the MSNBC news program, "Weekends with Alex Witt." Witt said Ivanka was asked if she was interested in running for president. Ivanka replied:

"Gosh, for me the politics is less interesting. The policy and the impact of lifting communities and changing people's lives and the stories I've heard from the people I've met across this nation are just amazing. It's really energizing and I'm deeply passionate but the day I walk into the West Wing and I don't feel a shiver up my spine is the day I've been here too long."

Witt observed, "She didn't exactly say, 'No'."

In Ivanka's favor is her father's endorsement she'd make a great president. Her dad once commented that if Ivanka wanted to run for president, “she’d be very, very hard to beat."

There's also this rumor Ivanka and her husband, Jared, have an agreement to the effect that “If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president.”