The Republican Party has a huge Ivanka Trump problem — and it could end in class warfare, a leading Democratic Socialist warned.
“The anger and rage is building,” India Walton told Raw Story. “As we begin to raise our class consciousness and realize that racialized capitalism and the institutions that uphold it are the real enemy, and not one another, that will be the day that you'll see people in the streets.”
Walton, an ex-mayoral candidate who now serves as a senior strategist for the progressive group RootsAction, made this prediction as President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter takes soft but determined steps back into the spotlight with a series of Instagram posts promoting her business ventures and documenting her family’s luxurious lifestyle.
Ivanka’s decision to share recent images of her family jet-setting to Iceland and dining with royalty has unwittingly documented an America divided by wealth as they triggered a stark rebuke from citizens who struggle to put food on their tables and gas in their cars.
Earlier this month, Ivanka posted a video of her daughter horseback riding on an idyllic beach and was met with condemnation — even from conservative commentators.
“Americans: We can’t afford gas, food or tuition,” conservative podcaster Melissa Witte wrote on X. “Trump Family: here’s a video of Kai’s luxury dorm, Ivanka riding a horse and we’re also gonna rename both New Mexico and Lake Ontario ‘America.’”
And Ivanka's family photos from Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas wedding now serve as a platform to discuss the recent ProPublica report that found the celebration was funded in part by a Russian oligarch.
"Elites trying so hard to be normal," Texan Derek Geisler replied on Instagram. "And I used to be a big Trump fan."
When Ivanka shared an image of “The Beginning of Infinity” by David Deutsch — a book that explores the impact Western civilization has had on human progress — she was immediately criticized by one Instagram user as "Ivanka Columbus."
"I'm sure she's looking to discover new lands to claim as her own," Charles Knight wrote. "Locals be on the lookout."
Locals in Albania — where Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner plan to transform one of the nation’s most important ecological sites into a $1.4 billion resort — are doing more than keeping watch. They’re taking to the streets.
What began as a one-issue outcry has developed into an organized movement as thousands of Albanians demand their government resign over concerns of corruption in the hands of oligarchs.
Ivanka Trump sparked this “Flamingo Revolution” when she bragged, again on her social media, about how she dived off a friend’s boat, swam to what she claimed was the barely known Sazan Island, took a barefoot hike to its peak and decided to “realize its potential.”
“It’s not even a business for me, despite the scale of it,” Ivanka told interviewer David Senra in May. “For me, it feels more like a challenge than anything else… a lot of reflection on how I want to live.”
On Thursday, Walton argued to Raw Story that the number of Americans who want to live like Ivanka Trump is dwindling fast as the president's MAGA base sours on his philosophies, and sees progress occur outside his realm.
“There's still a certain subset of our population who believes that one day, you know, if they work hard enough, they will be the Ivankas and the Donald Trumps of the world,” Walton said. “We are beginning to find out that those things are just untrue.”
In Trump's "Golden Age," Americans have simplified their desires to safe food, vaccines for their kids, "a gallon of gas and a dozen eggs," Walton argued.
If these frustrated Americans have yet to unite in protest, argued Walton, it's only because they're afraid.
“With the militarization of our local police departments, with the deputization of ICE agents who have no qualifications in law enforcement, and who are wearing masks and go unidentified and are just like sweeping up people off the street,” said Walton, “there is a very real and reasonable fear that people are feeling about rising up.”
But Americans, Walton believes, cannot ignore the success that her fellow Democratic Socialists have achieved — and pointed to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as proof.
“Everyone, all over the country, is watching the success of New York City, one of the wealthiest cities in the world, watching it be able to tackle an affordability agenda,” she said. “People are really starting to question why, and what are people going to do about it?”
And as Ivanka Trump continues to highlight the divide between the very rich and those struggling to get by, she only showcases the MAGA movement’s fatal flaw, Walton concluded.
“This empire is not going to last forever — it can't possibly,” Walton said. “There's 99 percent of us who are fed up… we are moving away from identity and rediscovering that class is what unites us all.”