Ivanka Trump rejected parts of the “Green New Deal” being championed by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) in a recent interview, saying that she thinks most Americans “want to work for what they get.”
“You’ve got people who will see that offer from the Democrats, from the progressive Democrats, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Here’s the Green New Deal, here’s the guarantee of a job,’ and think, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want, it’s that simple.’ What do you say to those people?” Fox News host Steve Hilton asked Trump in an interview scheduled to air on Sunday.
“I don’t think most Americans, in their heart, want to be given something. I’ve spent a lot of time traveling around this country over the last four years. People want to work for what they get,” Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and adviser, said in response.
{mosads}“So, I think that this idea of a guaranteed minimum is not something most people want. They want the ability to be able to secure a job. They want the ability to live in a country where’s there’s the potential for upward mobility,” she continued.
Though much criticism from conservatives has accompanied the announcement of Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey’s (D-Mass.) Green New Deal — a comprehensive plan that sets ambitious goals to eliminate U.S. carbon emissions by 2030 — the proposal has seen much support from registered voters from both parties.
A survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication in December found that 92 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans back the Green New Deal plan, which aims to move the country to 100 percent renewable electricity and would also guarantee jobs for unemployed people.
When pressed about the 2020 election, Trump also went on to boast that her father’s policies are “continuing to allow this economy to thrive” and could serve to give him an edge in the coming presidential race.
“I think fundamentally if you ask yourself the question, ‘are we better today than we were yesterday or we were 2 years ago?’ The answer is, undoubtedly, yes,” Trump told Hilton. “So, as an American, families sitting down and thinking about their financial situation relative to a month ago or a year ago, America is doing very well and it stands in quite sharp contrast to the rest of the world.”
“So, not only are we doing well, much of the world has slowed down in terms of the pace of their growth,” she added.