America’s low-key social distancers: Trump’s family

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Ivanka Trump, left, has her own social media campaign championing how the country can be #TogetherApart, while half-sister Tiffany Trump, right, joined in with her own impassioned #TogetherApart plea on Instagram. | Craig Ruttle/AP Photo

President Donald Trump rigorously sanitizes his hands, but still occasionally extends his hand before remembering: handshakes are now verboten. His family, on the other hand, seems to have social distancing down pat — and Trump seems to be noticing. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a senior White House adviser, has her own social media campaign championing how the country can be #TogetherApart. Ivanka’s half-sister, Tiffany Trump, joined in with her own impassioned #TogetherApart plea on Instagram: “Social distancing saves lives!” she wrote, prompting a “Thank you my girl for sharing” from her mother, Marla Maples. First Lady Melania Trump, who often goes for weeks without making public statements, has appeared in public service announcements.On Saturday, Trump showed that he was catching on, retweeting three of Ivanka Trump’s appeals to stay separated, including one altered image of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album cover where the cross-walking band members are all dispersed down the road.The trend is a reflection of the social media savvy of Trump’s younger family members — much of their advocacy has been targeted at a digital audience. It’s also a product of the heightened attention that falls on first families in moments of crisis, as the country looks for guidance from those with proximity to power. And the advocacy could even have a tangible effect as health experts worry that not enough Americans are staying apart as coronavirus cases surge across the country.Yet it has also revealed a contrast between the patriarch’s back-and-forth signals and most of his relative’s consistency. While the president embraced social-distancing guidelines in mid-March, he has repeatedly teased an early return normalcy and declined to reprimand states that have not fully implemented stay-at-home orders.