Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Chelsea Clinton and Ivanka Trump Both Defended Malia Obama, But Who Did It Better?

Malia Obama, the former-first daughter whose scrutinized life has aroused the sympathy of many a Rabbi’s kid over the years, was seen in an online video this week blowing smoke rings. Footage of the 19 year-old Harvard University student blowing Gandalf-level smoke rings with apparent ease was released first on the site Barstool Sports and then the conservative news site the Daily Caller. The clip came right on the heels of paparazzi pictures of Obama doing what your dad and mine would call “canoodling” with a boy at a Harvard-Yale football game. These brief glimpses into Malia Obama’s life have provoked both massive criticism and wild approval on Twitter, almost none of which is printable.

Here are our thoughts: on one hand, Malia Obama is obviously a remarkably talented young woman both at smoking and looking cute in an ironic hat. On the other hand, this may be none of our business. Former first-daughter Chelsea Clinton and current first-daughter Ivanka Trump certainly seem to think so. Both women came to the defense of the older Obama daughter on Twitter this week. The question is: who said it better?

Clinton VS. Trump: The Tweet-Off

We would never compare Chelsea Clinton and Ivanka Trump’s looks or accomplishments or relationships with their dads — it’s tacky! It does not promote the mission of feminism! But when two first daughters rush to the internet to defend another first daughter, it needs to either result in a Haim-like girl band or a Tweet-off moderated by the Forward. For now, we’ll settle for the latter.

Let’s start by analyzing the tweet current first-daughter Ivanka Trump put out in response to the controversy on November 24th.

Ivanka Trump is an accomplished and exceptionally powerful woman whose beauty is such that I frequently find myself unable to look away from pictures of her. However, her moral vacuousness makes me feel nauseous.

Irregardless, as Ivanka might say, this tweet is a work of art. Stern, passionate, and fact-filled, it stays under 140 characters and makes great use of capital letters. It breaks my verbal spears into artisanal Ivanka Trump-brand pruning hooks and makes me fantasize about going to brunch with her. She received over 200,000 “likes” and a tiny piece of my heart, and probably Malia Obama’s as well.

On the same day, former first-daughter Chelsea Clinton tweeted about Malia Obama.

Clinton, too, stayed trendily under the traditional-but-no-longer-mandatory character limit. She contrasted a commanding tone with an apt neologism, demonstrating social media prowess. But where Clinton triumphed was in the phenomenal use of self-righteousness and (might we add Jewish?) guilt that is elegantly dumped on readers at the end of her tweet. The comma usage is iffy, but the tweet is magnificent. Clinton’s tweet received over 400,000 likes, nearly double that of Trump’s.

So who wins?

Both tweets are carefully crafted defenses of Obama. The two tweets have a lot in common — Trump referred to Obama a “young adult,” Clinton called her a “young woman.” Both women use the word ‘private’ redundantly, which may wear on your nerves if you’re that sort of person. Both tweets seem a little selfless and a little selfish. But there’s only one solution.

Chelsea Clinton, with 423,760 likes, wins the popular vote.

Ivanka Trump, with strategic use of capital letters and unexpected force, takes the electoral college.

Congrats to both candidates. See you at the next tweet-off.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.