Ivanka Trump raised eyebrows in 2017 when she took her father's seat during a G20 meeting in Germany.
The president's older daughter, who had no government experience prior to being named as senior White House advisor by her father, sat between Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Theresa May.
The administration and "Princess Ivanka" were harshly criticized at the time.
Trump attempted to defend Ivanka following the criticism.
"If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother, as her mother gave our country away, the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!" Trump argued on Twitter.
Chelsea Clinton herself replied.
"Good morning Mr. President. It would never have occurred to my mother or my father to ask me," she wrote. "Were you giving our country away? Hoping not."
A bombshell new report in The Daily Beast details the aftermath of that tweet, after it was "liked" by a government account.
"That tweet garnered more than half a million likes, including by the account for the U.S. mission to the European Union. That kickstarted a weeks-long investigation, prompted by the secretary’s office, into who exactly at the Brussels mission had access to the Twitter account and hit like on Clinton’s tweet," The Beast reported, citing two former U.S. officials.
"Nearly 10 people were interviewed about whether they, as administrators of the account, had mistakenly or deliberately pressed the 'like' button. All of them denied any wrongdoing, those sources said. One individual familiar with the exchanges said the Secretary of State’s top managers in Washington 'wanted blood' and called Brussels numerous times demanding the name of the culprit," The Beast reported.
It wasn't just the Secretary of State's office, the White House was also reportedly involved.
"It is unclear if Trump—who is famously thin-skinned about criticism or even mean tweets from prominent critics—himself was aware of this intra-administration kerfuffle over the Clinton tweet, but some of his lieutenants certainly were," The Beast noted. "According to two former White House officials, word of the 'Chelsea Clinton thing,' as one of the ex-officials said they'd dubbed it, soon reached the halls of the West Wing, where it became a piece of gossip and facepalming among Trump aides, many of whom were still trying to root out perceived foes in their ranks, often by labeling enemies in conversations to the president or to senior staffers as 'Never Trumpers,' 'anti-Trump,' and 'leakers.'”
