Tiffany Trump becomes campaign liability after Miami birthday bash during COVID-19

Tiffany Trump is often joked about as President Donald Trump’s “forgotten” child, but she made herself memorable this week by partying in Miami for her 27th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her celebration made her even more memorable because she became a target for a #ByeTiffany” campaign ad attacking her father’s handling of the pandemic. The ad by MeidasTouch, an anti-Trump political action committee, spliced news clips about America’s death toll, school closures and young people missing out on birthdays, graduations and weddings with tabloid coverage of Trump’s second daughter “painting the town red, white and blue.”

Images in the ad, showing Tiffany Trump wearing a sailor’s hat, dancing and waving a sparkler, appeared to undermine her speech at the Republican National Convention, when she proclaimed “I can relate” to the struggles of other young people during this national crisis.

On Thursday afternoon, #ByeTiffany became a top trending topic on Twitter. The ad also encouraged social media users to share stories about loved ones they had lost or ways they had missed out on being with family over the past seven months.

The ad comes after the president has openly dismissed mask and social distancing guidelines. Tiffany Trump, her siblings and her stepmother, Melania Trump, also faced criticism for ignoring mandatory mask rules during the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29.

Several days later, the president and first lady announced they had tested positive for COVID-19, and the White House is still dealing with an outbreak that also infected Tiffany’s half-brother, Barron Trump, and numerous White House aides, staffers and high-profile Republicans. The outbreak is suspected to have stemmed from a Rose Garden event to announce Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination.

Tiffany Trump’s two-day birthday celebration started Sunday night with a sushi dinner at Miami hot spot Komodo, Page Six reported. She and her boyfriend, Michael Boulos, and their “posse” then headed over to another restaurant where the owner greeted them “with a multi-bottle Champagne parade complete with sparklers and American flags,” Page Six reported.

The following night, Tiffany Trump and her boyfriend went to dinner and were served a birthday cake with three tiers, Vanity Fair reported. On each tier were photos of her, including a photo with her father. Tiffany Trump’s Miami visit came a few days before her father answered voters’ questions during an NBC town hall in Miami.

There was nothing illegal about Tiffany Trump partying in Miami, the Miami New Times reported. Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defied the recommendations of public health officials during a still-active coronavirus pandemic by allowing restaurants to reopen for indoor dining at 100-percent capacity, Forbes added.

But Tiffany Trump’s celebration was seen as tone-deaf and much worse by people on Twitter:

Being the subject of a political attack ad is new territory for the recent Georgetown University law school graduate, who has mostly stayed out of the limelight — until the Republican National Convention in August when she said, “A vote for my father … is a vote to uphold our American ideals.”

On a personal level, Tiffany Trump has long faced reports that she’s not very close to her father or her half-siblings because she wasn’t raised with them but by her mother, Marla Maples, in California.

In the family, Tiffany Trump was referred to as the “red-haired stepchild,” Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen wrote in his book “Disloyal: A Memoir.” It was one of the many ways Cohen said she was disparaged and treated differently than her siblings. Cohen also wrote that Ivanka Trump joined in this “casual cruelty” because she “jealously guarded her position as Trump’s favorite and surrogate, even at the expense of her vulnerable younger sister.”

Ivanka Trump has tried to counter such reports about any negative feelings towards her half-sister over the past few years, but her efforts to show sisterly bonding backfired this week when she sent happy birthday wishes to Tiffany on Twitter — and she tagged the wrong Tiffany Trump, the Daily Dot reported. Tiffany Trump’s Twitter handle is @TiffanyATrump. The account Ivanka Trump tagged, however, appears to be a bot account.