Flouting social distancing rules, Ivanka Trump flew to New Jersey for seder

US President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, has failed to follow the federal government’s guidelines against unnecessary travel, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Trump, who serves as a senior adviser to her father and has led some of the administration’s efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic’s economic fallout, has repeatedly urged Americans to stay home and refrain from discretionary travel.

But before the start of Passover on April 8, she traveled with her husband Jared Kushner, also a senior adviser to the president, and their three children from the couple’s home in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, DC, to the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.

The report cites “two people with knowledge of their travel plans,” and notes that the couple’s travel was conducted “even as Seders across the country were canceled and families gathered remotely over apps like Zoom.”

While the federal guidelines against travel are not compulsory, Washington issued a stay-at-home order beginning April 1 for all but essential activities, the Times reported.

In one recent online video, Ivanka Trump told Americans, “Those lucky enough to be in a position to stay at home, please, please do so. Each and every one of us plays a role in slowing the spread.”

Trump reportedly “has told people” that she was better able to social distance from the New Jersey club, which is closed, than from the family’s Washington, DC, home.

Israel has also seen a series of public leaders apparently flout the government’s social-distancing requirements.

Immigration and Absorption Minister Yoav Galant (Likud) was the latest official to violate the government’s restrictions, which banned Israeli citizens from celebrating the Passover holiday with those who don’t live in the same home.

Channel 12 news reported Wednesday that Galant hosted his daughter, who lives in Tel Aviv, for the entire seven days of Passover, despite the closures imposed throughout the country on the Seder night and the last day of the holiday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu caused a furor by hosting his son at his residence, seen in a video posted on Passover Eve. And President Reuven Rivlin also hosted family in violation of regulations, as did Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman.

All did so after the Israeli public was repeatedly urged not to visit family for the holiday to avoid infecting them with coronavirus.

A spokesman for Galant said that “in view of the current protracted situation, the minister’s daughter, Or, who lives in Tel Aviv, moved to her parent’s house from the beginning of the closure, until a return to normal.”

Rivlin on Tuesday apologized a second time for celebrating the Passover Seder with one of his daughters, who he’d previously explained was helping him with his official duties since the death of his wife Nechama last year.

The rest of the country celebrated the start of the holiday on April 8 and its final day on Wednesday under a strict curfew.

This saw thousands of elderly people forced to spend the holiday alone, without their children or grandchildren, while others celebrated only with those confined with them in the same house.