Ivanka Trump Sits In Donald Trump's Place At G20 Meeting, Twitter Reacts

The episode drew fire from observers who criticized the unusual move of having a family member take the president's place during a meeting of world leaders.

President Trump's daughter participated in high-level meetings throughout the summit including a World Bank panel on women's entrepreneurship with several high-ranking worldwide officials.

President Trump announced Saturday that the United States will pledge $50 million to a new World Bank initiative that his daughter Ivanka has helped to spearhead and will take a leading advocacy role going forward.

But when the 35-year-old former fashion executive sat at the table with Xi Jinping, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Angela Merkel and Theresa May, Trump's enemies pounced.

After US President Donald Trump left a G20 summit leaders meeting, his daughter Ivanka, who holds no official position at the conference, sat down in his chair and listened attentively to the speeches and discussions, causing quite the controversy at the summit and on social media. He also mentioned that he doesn't make her life easy.

Ambassador Nikki Haley said Trump had gone into the meeting "to basically look him in the eye, let him know that, yes, we know you did it and cut it out".

Svetlana Lukash, who describes herself on Twitter as a "Russian G20 sherpa" had earlier tweeted that the president's unelected White House assistant had at first arrived accompanying her father.

"I wasn't elected by the American people to be president", she told "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King.

Per The Telegraph, a head of state will often allow an appointed representative to take his or her place while he or she conducts meetings or other private conversations, but this marks the first known instance in which a daughter served as a proxy.

If the reactions of other world leaders attending G-20 are any indication, however, they appear to have already accepted Ivanka as one of their own. The president praised her work on the fund at the event. "This significant investment will help the women in developing countries to create jobs, build economies, from which everyone can benefit, and to enjoy equal opportunity and real success", said Justin Trudeau in a press release. He told the attendees that he's "very proud" of Ivanka and has been "since day one".