Ivanka Trump speaks during a meeting with the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, in the East Room of the White House. Photo / AP
Ivanka Trump speaks during a meeting with the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, in the East Room of the White House. Photo / AP
Ivanka Trump is courting controversy once again – this time for the launch of a new ad campaign many have branded insensitive and insulting.
Earlier today, US President Donald Trump's daughter started spruiking the government's new Find Something New initiative, which is designed to help the unemployed and backed by Apple Inc and IBM Corp.
It was created by the White House's American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, which is co-chaired by Ivanka Trump.
The campaign is designed to encourage Americans who are facing unemployment or career uncertainty to branch out into new fields and feature workers who have successfully switched careers in the face of adversity.
However, it has attracted brutal backlash almost immediately.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the US hard, with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest report revealing there are now 17.8 million unemployed people in the country.
"Although unemployment fell in May and June, the jobless rate and the number of unemployed are up by 7.6 percentage points and 12 million, respectively, since February," the report states.
More than ever our #PledgetoAmericasWorkers is focused on helping Americans 🇺🇸 bolster skills to find new jobs + navigate career transitions.
Those grim statistics have prompted many Americans to question the timing and message behind the Trump administration's new campaign, with social media users labelling it "tone deaf" and "out of touch".
Others likened the message to Marie Antoinette's infamous "let them eat cake" quote, supposedly directed at starving peasants during the French Revolution.
New Ivanka Trump initiative tells out-of-work Americans to 'find something new'....they can't find bread? Why don't they eat cake? Modern day Marie Antoinettehttps://t.co/cURxpWKFTQ
"Why do people need to 'find something new'? Oh, because your father had no plan to contain a virus, which he called a hoax, and now 135,000 people are dead and the virus is still rampant. You find something new that will get us out of this hell," one furious Twitter user posted.
"Have you even had a job a day in your life? Everyone knows you never had to work for anything! The country's in bad shape, if you don't want to extend unemployment then things are going to get bad. It's worse than the Great Depression you have no solution but find something new?" another added.
President Donald Trump speaks with Ivanka Trump during a meeting with the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, in the East Room of the White House. Photo / AP
During the virtual launch of the initiative, Ivanka Trump acknowledged the havoc the coronavirus pandemic had wrought on people's lives and careers.
"Now, as a result of Covid, people need to, unfortunately, in some cases learn a completely new skill," Ivanka Trump said.
"But that is also an opportunity to be put on for a new trajectory for themselves and their lives and we want to facilitate that connection back to the workforce and make it as smooth as possible."
