Spicer: Nordstrom Dropping Ivanka Trump’s Line Is ‘Direct Attack’ On Prez

White House press Secretary Sean Spicer speaks during the daily White House briefing, Monday, Jan. 23, 2017, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday that Nordstrom’s decision to stop carrying Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessories line is an attack on the president’s policies and his daughter.

Spicer told reporters during his daily press briefing that the decision — which Nordstrom said was a result of poor sales, not politics — was because of the clothing company’s displeasure with President Donald Trump’s executive orders and his policies.

“I think this is less about his family’s business and an attack on his daughter,” Spicer said. “He ran for president. He won. He’s leading this country. I think for people to take out their concern about his actions or his executive orders on members of his family, he has every right to stand up for his family and applaud their business activities, their success.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump attacked Nordstrom on Twitter, saying that the brand treated his daughter “so unfairly.”

When asked why Nordstrom’s decision would be an attack on the President’s daughter after she supposedly removed herself from her company, Spicer said that the attack affects Ivanka Trump because the brand still bears her name.

“There’s a targeting of her brand and it’s her name,” Spicer said. “She’s not directly running the company. It’s still her name on it. There are clearly efforts to undermine that name based on her father’s positions on particular policies that he’s taken. This is a direct attack on his policies and her name. Her because she is being maligned because they have a problem with his policies.”

Spicer also hit back on reports that Trump was in a security briefing when he sent the tweet, saying the President was “free” at the time.

Nordstrom reiterated its previous attitude in a statement to TPM, saying that it was poor sales that lead to dropping the brand.

“To reiterate what we’ve already shared when asked, we made this decision based on performance,” a Nordstrom spokesperson said “Over the past year, and particularly in the last half of 2016, sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now. We’ve had a great relationship with the Ivanka Trump team. We’ve had open conversations with them over the past year to share what we’ve seen and Ivanka was personally informed of our decision in early January.”
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