Ella Emhoff’s ‘Creativity and Beauty’ Sparks Meltdown Among MAGA Conservatives
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Ella Emhoff, the tattoo-covered stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris, became an iconic figure at last week’s Democratic National Convention, but her appearance triggered a wave of outrage among leading figures of the MAGA movement, according to Salon’s Amanda Marcotte.
“A chorus of conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk lost their minds at the sight of this young woman,” Marcotte wrote on Tuesday. “They complained that she’s ‘covered in tattoos,’ which is held out as proof that [her dad] Doug Emhoff ‘messed up.’ (Real men, to the MAGA right, control their daughter’s body from her skin to her hymen to how she dresses. Not weird at all!)”
Critics from the right also took issue with Emhoff’s choice of attire, with some describing her as wearing a “man’s suit” and resembling “something out of a horror film.” The outrage extended to her father, Doug Emhoff, for showing affection towards his daughter during the convention, particularly when he gave her a fatherly side hug.
In contrast, Marcotte painted a very different picture of the 25-year-old Emhoff, describing her as a self-assured, beautiful, and successful woman. A graduate of the Parson School of Design and a model signed with IMG, Emhoff appeared confident in her own skin and demonstrated a warm, loving relationship with her family.
According to Marcotte, it is this very combination of “creativity, beauty, and easygoing love for her family” that has triggered a frenzy among the conservative right. “The daughter of Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, triggers the incel-minded online right by being a Brooklyn hipster who rejects the tiresome conservative rules for how women are allowed to dress or behave,” Marcotte wrote. “In response, Donald Trump’s fanboys are in a total meltdown, unable to accept the existence of a woman who doesn’t care what they think of her.”
Marcotte emphasized that what truly infuriates these critics is that Emhoff not only disregards their opinions but looks great doing so. Highlighting a specific example, Marcotte pointed to right-wing commentator Richard Hanania, who called the model the “nightmare scenario for most people with a daughter.”
“It’s yet another sign of how out of touch and frankly weird the MAGA right is,” Marcotte argued. “No, most Americans would not find it a ‘nightmare’ to have a daughter who is successful, popular, and confident. Most parents would feel how Doug Emhoff appears to feel: proud of the smart, independent woman he helped raise.”
Marcotte concluded by noting the broader implications for the Trump campaign, referencing J.D. Vance’s derogatory remarks about successful single women as “cat ladies.” She suggested that such attitudes could backfire politically, as “the majority of Americans find it weird when men have an unhinged loathing of women who diverge from their ‘tradwife’ fantasies.”
