Washington – US department store chain Nordstrom treated Ivanka Trump unfairly by dropping her clothing collection, said US President Donald Trump Wednesday as he jumped to his daughter’s defence.
“My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person – always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!” Trump said on Twitter.
Nordstrom, which operates 347 stores in 40 states and Canada, said Friday it had dropped Ivanka Trump’s clothing collection because of low sales.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Wednesday that Trump had every right to defend a member of his family, calling Nordstrom’s decision “a direct attack on (Donald Trump’s) policies and her name.”
Spicer said Trump considered it unfair that his daughter had been “maligned because they have a problem with his policies.” He said that, while Ivanka Trump is not directly running the company – which sells clothing, shoes, handbags and jewellery – it still bears her name.
Ivanka Trump leaves the US Capitol with her family following the swearing in of her father, Donald Trump, as the 45th US president last month. On Wednesday, the president lashed out at retailer Nordstrom for dropping his daughter’s fashion line, which it had said was not selling well. (J Scott Applewhite/Prensa Internacional/ZUMA Wire Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/Prensa Internacional/ZUMA/POOL/dpa)
Nordstrom reiterated in a statement emailed to dpa that its reason for the decision was based on the performance of the brand.
“Over the past year, and particularly in the last half of 2016, sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now,” a company spokesperson said.
A Nordstrom spokeswoman quoted by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, said the company denied that its decision to drop Ivanka Trump was linked to President Trump’s executive order on immigration.
The spokeswoman said the company’s co-presidents last week sent an email to all Nordstrom employees “to offer support and resources for those directly impacted by the executive order on immigration.” But she denied the message to employees was linked to the business decision to drop the Ivanka Trump brand.
“For us, the two were not connected,” she said.
Nordstrom stock initially wobbled on the news, but then recovered, Bloomberg reported.
– dpa
