U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to defend his daughter Ivanka Trump Monday morning.
The president’s latest Twitter rant came after Ivanka was slammed over the weekend for briefly sitting in his place during the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
WATCH: Trump says if Ivanka wasn’t his daughter ‘it would be so much easier for her’
A photo of Ivanka sitting at a seat labelled “United States” sparked criticism of nepotism.
Trump tweeted Monday saying that even German Chancellor Angela Merkel agrees that Ivanka’s presence at the meeting was “very standard.”
In a follow-up tweet, he added that the criticism by “Fake News” would not have occurred if Hillary Clinton’s daughter Chelsea had stepped in for her mother.
Clinton was quick to respond to Trump’s tweet, saying her parents would never have asked her to replace them in a meeting.
Merkel did come to Ivanka’s defence Saturday, saying it was up to individual countries to decide who represents them.
“The delegations themselves decide, should the president not be present for a meeting, who will then take over and sit in the chair,” Merkel said, according to Bloomberg News.
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“Ivanka Trump was part and parcel of the American delegation so that is something that other delegations also do. It’s very well known that she works at the White House and is also engaged in certain initiatives,” Merkel added.
The White House also defended Ivanka in a statement, saying she was “sitting at the back and only briefly joined the main table.”
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According to The Hill, cabinet officials usually step in for world leaders at major meetings.
Ivanka is an unpaid adviser, and while she frequently attends government meetings and events, she has said she prefers to stay out of politics.
WATCH: Ivanka Trump says she tries to stay out of politics
“I leave the politics to other people and really lean into the issues that I care deeply about,” she said during an interview with Fox News’ Fox and Friends in June.
At the summit, the Trump praised his daughter, saying being the president’s daughter puts her in a difficult position.
“I’m very proud of my daughter Ivanka,” he said. “Always have been from day one … If she weren’t my daughter, it’d be so much easier for her. It might be the only bad thing she has going, if you want to know the truth.”
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