Woman whom president-elect mistook for his daughter on Twitter uses her 15 minutes of fame to speak out on environment

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A digital consultant from Brighton whom Donald Trump mistook for his daughter on Twitter says she is more concerned by the prospect of a climate change denier in the White House than someone who makes slip-ups on social media.

Ivanka Majic, 42, a former digital director for the Labour party, said it was “very surreal” to discover that the president-elect had retweeted a message intending to praise his daughter, Ivanka Trump, that included her Twitter name instead.

Trump quoted a praiseworthy tweet directed to him by Lawrence Goodstein, a Twitter user in Seekonk, Massachusetts, that described his daughter Ivanka as “a woman with real character and class” late on Monday.

But Goodstein had mistakenly put @Ivanka, not @IvankaTrump – not a significant mistake in light of Goodstein’s 160-odd followers, but of far greater consequence circulated by Trump to his 20.1 million.

Overnight Majic’s Twitter followers more than doubled as she found herself thrust into the spotlight by a man who will be sworn in as president on Friday.

She said she was keen to use the attention to speak out on the environment. “I’ve got my 15 minutes of fame and this is how I’m choosing to use it,” Majic told the Guardian.

Donald Trump mistakes Ivanka from Brighton for his daughter Read more

Replying to Trump, she tweeted: “And you’re a man with great responsibilities. May I suggest more care on Twitter and more time learning about #climatechange.”

She also tweeted data pointing out that 97.5% of publishing climatologists and about 90% of all publishing scientists supported the human-induced climate change theory.

Ivanka Majic (@ivanka) @realDonaldTrump @drgoodspine And you're a man with great responsibilities. May I suggest more care on Twitter and more time learning about #climatechange. pic.twitter.com/kBMEGZYtig

Majic said Trump’s error was a careless mistake. “One would hope that the future president of the US would pay a little more attention, but I’m sure anybody could have made the same mistake.

“What is of more concern to me is that we have a president-elect who is a climate change denier.”

Majic said that because of her Twitter name, @Ivanka, she had often been mistaken for Ivanka Trump on the social network, but her politics were very different from the Trump family’s.

What do Donald Trump's Twitter tastes tell us about him? Read more

She said: “It is not the first time I’ve been included in a tweet to him or to his daughter, but it is the first time I’ve been mentioned in something that Donald Trump has retweeted. So this isn’t new, but it is new for it to be this big.

“My politics are very different from Donald Trump’s. During the election campaign I had a Twitter bot that replied to anyone who had @Ivanka and Trump in the same tweet, with the message: ‘Don’t know about you but I’m voting for Hillary.’

“The other thing I get mistaken for is a Hungarian concrete company called Ivanka Concrete, but that’s easy to deal with.”

Majic, whose father was a Croat from Bosnia-Herzegovina, said: “Ivanka is an incredible common Slavic name. It is about as boring as you can get. So Ivanka Trump and I share that at least.”

She added: “I came down in morning to find lots of Twitter notifications. It’s very surreal. There is no other word for it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump retweeted a message praising his daughter, Ivanka, that used the wrong Twitter name. Photograph: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

“None of this annoying. It is remarkable. Even 10 years ago it could have never have happened that a president-elect of the United States of America accidentally mentions a fairly normal citizen from Brighton. It is a 21st-century story that raises lots of interesting questions … about how you choose your Twitter handle, for starters.”

As a freelance digital consultant, Majic advises clients to keep a low profile when caught up in social media storms. “I am probably not doing what I would advise others to do. I would advise them to switch off their phones and go for a nice walk.

“If one is given a platform for a day, I don’t think me slinging any insults or being disparaging towards the president will be helpful, but I do think mentioning climate change might invite some people to reconsider their views, or learn something, or read something.”

Majic said Trump’s cabinet nominations, notably the choice of the ExxonMobile chief executive, Rex Tillerson, as secretary of state, meant these were “worrying times for the world”.

Majic, who has a young daughter, is also troubled by Trump’s sexism. She said: “That a man got elected after making comments that he did about women is really worrying.

“A conversation about climate change may be slightly easier to elevate online than a conversation about being respectful to women. And that is itself a problem, but there you go.”

Majic said she wanted to engage in a “polite” debate rather than trading insults with Trump. But she does not expect Trump to continue the conversation. “I don’t expect a reply – I don’t think he’s a man who likes to make mistakes,” she said.

“I am happy to tweet a polite message to Donald Trump saying: ‘Please pay attention to climate change.’ What I don’t want to get embroiled in is some flame war about calling him something.

“Of course I’m worried about Donald Trump being president of the United States, but let’s hope he does a good job.”