ONE VERY UNCOOL MILLENNIAL

Despite all the advantages of hailing from New York, she’s a dud.

As anyone who’s ever been to New York City knows, it is one of the hippest, coolest places on the planet. People from all walks of life, from all over the world, who’ve visited New York usually list it among their favorite global cities.

New York is nearly unrivaled as one of the top places on earth for intellectuals, capitalists, the arts, fashion, music, financial markets and sports. It is a leader among the trend-setting burgs, influencing and permeating culture throughout the U.S. and the world.

I first experienced New York when my parents took us to the 1964 World’s Fair. I can still remember staring up at the Empire State building, a small-town Indiana boy, awestruck by the big city.

The next time I visited the Big Apple was on a solo business trip from Chicago in the mid-1980’s. I was a young professional and remember looking out the window of the plane in amazement as we flew over Manhattan and the other boroughs, thinking how small it made Chicago seem!

Arriving downtown that day, I embodied the lyrics in the song “Living for the City” by Stevie Wonder. I might as well have exclaimed “Wow, New York, just like I pictured it, skyscrapers and everything!” When exiting the taxi in front of my hotel, I felt the rush of tingling excitement as I soaked in the atmosphere of the great metropolis.

If you’ve lived in or visited New York, you know the experiences and resources are virtually unmatched, particularly if you can afford them. Being rich provides unparalleled access, and with access comes tremendous opportunity and advantage.

Coming from a wealthy family in New York gives a person the opportunity to be, well, royal-like. Such as, for example, like Caroline Kennedy and John Kennedy, Jr.

So, what happened to Ivanka Trump?

Ivanka was bestowed with just about every advantage one could have for carving out a cool, useful life. Born into wealth. Educated at Manhattan’s prestigious Chapin School. Attended Choate Rosemary, a private college prep school in Connecticut. And graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Yet, Ivanka is one uncool millennial who, so far, has blown the opportunity to be a meaningful difference-maker. Instead, she reeks of aloof privilege and is out-of-touch.

Goodness girlfriend, you are from New York! And you are rich! You had access to the best schools and the best culture and best restaurants and best nightclubs and best fashion and best music. How in the hell are you so not cool?!

Certainly, having Donald Trump as your father would put anyone behind the eight-ball.

And with siblings Don Jr. and Eric who, along with Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner, could audition for a remake of the Three Stooges, Ivanka is surrounded by foolish men of bravado but no substance. (The Trump men are the opposite of cool cats like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michael Strahan, and George Clooney.)

Ivanka, despite lacking political experience or qualifications, is a special assistant to the president in her pappy’s administration. Earlier this year, Ivanka said she wants to advocate for women. Too bad she sounds equally ridiculous speaking about the glass ceiling women face, as well as commenting on the male sexual misconduct crisis (while ignoring her father’s extraordinary video admission that he has committed sexual assault).

Thirty-six years old, Ivanka is wealthy, owns a fashion business, was raised in one of the most influential cities on the planet, had access to the best education, has travelled globally extensively, and now resides in the nation’s capital. She has access to everything D.C. offers including globally, politically and culturally. Now that’s a recipe for being ‘with it’ and cool.

(Although it was totally uncool for her fashion designers to copy an Aquazzura-trademarked shoe design, which resulted in a lawsuit against Ivanka’s company. The trial is set for March 2018.)

Despite Ivanka’s stature and financial means to access some of the world’s great minds and artistic talent across a wide-range of disciplines including science, the arts and humanities, business, politics, social issues and even sports, she is an icy, calculating bore.

Ivanka is the antithesis of Kate Middleton.

With her near-silence, going back to last summer when her father’s sexual misconduct came to light, Ivanka has chosen to punt when there is an opportunity to genuinely speak out and be a positive role model.

And like First Lady Melania’s anti-bullying ‘campaign,’ Ivanka is tone-deaf and disconnected from many, many women, as evidenced by her defending the Trump administration ditching the Obama administration’s initiative to help close the gender pay gap.

Ivanka has either not spoken out, or not spoken out vehemently, against the support Donald Trump receives from the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, fascists, and Communists. Way uncool, Ivanka!

She is surprisingly behind the times, embracing the Make America Great Again-era, a time when some women were satisfied being, or were relegated to being, trophy wives.

Ivanka appears to be a trophy daughter, molded and ogled as another object in the eyes of Commander-in-Creep Donald Trump.

As it is, Ivanka is uninspiring, like a mannequin.

Like her equally dull brothers, Ivanka was gifted a lofty executive vice president title within the Trump organization. But without the shield of nepotism, Ivanka likely wouldn’t stand a chance of becoming an executive vice president at modern and progressive companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google or Starbucks.

Ivanka going along and making excuses for the gross distortion of societal, business, and political norms practiced by her father and his henchman (e.g. Mike Pence, Steve Bannon and John Kelly) is shameful, embarrassing and not cool.

And worse than being unbearably uncool, Ivanka is, like her father and so many others in the Trump orbit, a fraud.

Maybe someday Ivanka will look at her (gold?) framed mirror and lament that she allowed the opportunity to be someone truly special slip through her perfectly manicured, privileged hands.

Douglas FreelandDecember 14, 2017