U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law has a message for government workers facing a second missed paycheque as the government shutdown enters its 33rd day: no pain, no gain.
Lara Trump, wife of Eric Trump and a campaign adviser with the president’s 2020 re-election bid, said that while she empathized with furloughed workers’ plight, they can take solace in making America safer for future generations.
“Listen, it’s not fair to you, and we all get that, but this is so much bigger than any one person,” Lara said in an interview with Bold TV. “It is a little bit of pain but it’s going to be for the future of our country.”
“Their children and their grandchildren will thank them for their sacrifice right now.”
READ MORE: Dueling bills head to U.S. Senate to end historic shutdown
Asked how long she believed the shutdown might rumble on, Lara said she believes it’ll continue until the Democrats agree to stop “playing politics.”
Regurgitating several of her father-in-law’s talking points, Lara said it was high time America’s “broken” immigration system was fixed and insisted that a border wall was crucial to that.
Pressed on why the president couldn’t pursue his border security agenda without denying government workers a paycheque, she said: “I know it’s hard, I know people have families, they have bills to pay, they have mortgages, they have rents that are due — but the president is trying every single day to come up with a good solution here.”
WATCH: Federal workers protest government shutdown in Washington Senate building
The comments sparked a backlash on social media, with several people accusing Lara of being out of touch.
“‘A little bit of pain?’ She must not have talked to the workers at our airport or the prison guards without pay,” Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said.
“Umm, yeah, no,” said actor George Takei.
“How’s Mar-a-Lago? Maybe you can invite them there to #EatCake,” said Ana Navarro, co-host of The View.
Many compared Lara’s remarks to the phrase “Let them eat cake,” commonly attributed to 18th-century French queen Marie Antoinette upon being told that French peasants were running out of bread.
WATCH: #ChefsForFeds campaign to be rolled out to unpaid federal workers across the U.S.
Lara responded to the outrage by accusing the media of “misrepresenting” her remarks, although she didn’t elaborate on how they were misrepresented.
“#FakeNews is rampant these days. Don’t believe the #MSM who overreact without research and didn’t bother to watch my whole interview,” she said in a statement posted to Twitter.
“They’re completely misrepresenting my words and my support for furloughed workers. My heart goes out to all of the federal workers affected by the shutdown, and we’re fighting every day to end this impasse!
“BTW, if the Democrats really cared about these employees, many of who support the President’s fight for border security, they’d meet with @realDonaldTrump now!”
The shutdown started on Dec. 22, with President Trump demanding $5.7 billion to erect a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and Democratic lawmakers refusing to approve it.
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