On 14 December 2016, reporter Julia Ioffe's plans to leave Politico for The Atlantic were hastened by a controversy over a Twitter comment she made about Ivanka Trump and her father, President-elect Donald Trump.
Although Ioffe has since deleted the tweet, numerous screenshots and text-based copies of it remained on social media platforms and in news articles. Ioffe's tweet originally read:
Either Trump is fucking his daughter or he’s shirking nepotism laws. Which is worse? [link]
In the original tweet, Ioffe linked to a 14 December 2016 article reporting that Ivanka Trump would be using space in the White House traditionally used by the First Lady. It's unclear if the article meaningfully changed in the interim (as its URL suggest) but a version accessed on 15 December 2016 said:
A spokesperson for President-elect Donald Trump is pushing back on a report that Ivanka Trump will get an office in the space typically reserved for the first lady.
"This is false. No decisions regarding Ivanka's involvement have been made," Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told The Hill on Wednesday.
A strongly worded internal memo to Politico staffers about the controversy was leaked to reporters soon after Ioffe's termination:
Scolding message from Politico's leadership on Julia Ioffe's Trump tweet from today: Contract terminated immediately. pic.twitter.com/Zz8fGfmukr
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) December 14, 2016
In return, The Atlantic issued an official response:
Here's our statement on Julia Ioffe tweet: pic.twitter.com/LWJDW2frHw
— Emily Lenzner (@Elenzner) December 15, 2016
Ioffe sent two tweets apologizing after she deleted the controversial tweet, and one suggesting that the outcome amounted to government meddling with the media:
In Russia, the Kremlin rarely has to make the call to media organizations. The media bosses anticipate and do the censoring themselves.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) December 14, 2016
All that said, I do regret my phrasing and apologize for it. It was a crass joke that I genuinely regret.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) December 14, 2016
It was a tasteless, offensive tweet that I regret and have deleted. I am truly and deeply sorry. It won't happen again.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) December 14, 2016
The Atlantic said that it was confident that Ioffe would uphold its standards in her new position.