(JTA) — Covering the White House Easter Egg Roll live, CNN reporter John Berman noted that Ivanka Trump was not in attendance. Maybe, he speculated, it was because she’s Jewish.
“I saw Tiffany Trump just there before. Not Ivanka or Jared Kushner. Of course, Ivanka Trump is Jewish,” he said during Monday’s festivities. “I don’t know if she’s taking part in the Easter egg roll on the south lawn or not.”
The Newsbusters website pointed out Berman’s comment Monday and criticized what it called his “bizarre conspiracy theory” for why Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter, and husband Jared Kushner were not there.
But not so fast. The political news website Politico reported Sunday that Ivanka Trump and Kushner, both top White House aides, “were spending Passover at the Four Seasons Whistler resort in Canada. It was their second ski trip in the past month.”
Monday was the seventh day Passover. So the Trumps may very well have still been on the bunny hill.
Does that count as a Jewish motive for missing Easter?
The president’s grandchildren were at the White House Easter Egg Roll (which for those not in the know is exactly what it sounds like), according to The New York Times. But the newspaper does not specify which of the eight youngsters were spotted or whether Ivanka Trump’s three offspring were among them.
If Trump did skip out on the event for some Passover powder, it was clearly not out of any Jewish aversion to the Christian holiday. On Monday, she tweeted Easter greetings and a happy birthday wish to her son, who was born on Easter.
