Speeches by a candidate’s spouse or children are generally meant to humanize him and to reassure voters that they’re voting for a loving family man. But Tuesday night’s vague testimonial by Donald Trump’s younger daughter, Tiffany, served only to make him seem more strange and aloof.
In a speech about five minutes long, Tiffany was unable to come up with a single meaningful anecdote about her father or his influence in her life. He wrote notes on her childhood report cards, she said, and called her on the phone after someone close to her died. Her attempted praise was edged with sadness: He’s good with advice, she said, but “he keeps it short.”
Tiffany was the couple’s only child. Newspaper articles at the time of her birth reported that Trump named her after Tiffany & Company—yes, the jewelry brand—because his purchase of the air rights above the store in the 1980s allowed him to go on to build Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. “She’s got mama’s legs,” Trump of infant Tiffany in 1994. “We don’t know whether or not she’s got this part yet,” he added, cupping imaginary breasts, “but time will tell.”
These days she speaks warmly, if vaguely, about her father. “I don’t know what it’s like to have a typical father figure,” she told DuJour magazine. “He’s not the dad who’s going to take me to the beach and go swimming, but he’s such a motivational person.”
It was that amorphous idea of “motivation” that she emphasized in her speech on Tuesday night. “He motivates me to work my hardest and to always stay true to who I am and what I believe,” she said at the lectern, smiling broadly at each pause. “That’s what he does: He draws out the talent and drive in people so that they can achieve their full potential.” It was almost too easy to psychoanalyze —to see a young woman eager for the attention and approval of a father she barely knows. Alas, Donald wasn’t in Cleveland to watch his daughter’s big debut. He had flown back to New York for the night.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/07/20/tiffany_trump_s_sad_vague_rnc_speech.html
In a speech about five minutes long, Tiffany was unable to come up with a single meaningful anecdote about her father or his influence in her life. He wrote notes on her childhood report cards, she said, and called her on the phone after someone close to her died. Her attempted praise was edged with sadness: He’s good with advice, she said, but “he keeps it short.”
Tiffany was the couple’s only child. Newspaper articles at the time of her birth reported that Trump named her after Tiffany & Company—yes, the jewelry brand—because his purchase of the air rights above the store in the 1980s allowed him to go on to build Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. “She’s got mama’s legs,” Trump of infant Tiffany in 1994. “We don’t know whether or not she’s got this part yet,” he added, cupping imaginary breasts, “but time will tell.”
These days she speaks warmly, if vaguely, about her father. “I don’t know what it’s like to have a typical father figure,” she told DuJour magazine. “He’s not the dad who’s going to take me to the beach and go swimming, but he’s such a motivational person.”
It was that amorphous idea of “motivation” that she emphasized in her speech on Tuesday night. “He motivates me to work my hardest and to always stay true to who I am and what I believe,” she said at the lectern, smiling broadly at each pause. “That’s what he does: He draws out the talent and drive in people so that they can achieve their full potential.” It was almost too easy to psychoanalyze —to see a young woman eager for the attention and approval of a father she barely knows. Alas, Donald wasn’t in Cleveland to watch his daughter’s big debut. He had flown back to New York for the night.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/07/20/tiffany_trump_s_sad_vague_rnc_speech.html
