Ivanka's JetBlue Flight Revealed People Are Angry

A JetBlue passenger was removed from a flight carrying Ivanka Trump on Thursday morning for reportedly berating the president-elect's daughter. Though the removed passenger's actions were hostile, threatening, and ineffective, they illustrate just how fearful many Americans are of Donald Trump's impending presidency.

JetBlue issued a statement addressing the incident:

The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. If the crew determines that a customer is causing conflict on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of escalation during the flight. In this instance, our team worked to re-accommodate the party on the next flight.

Considering the customer in question did not want to be on the same flight as Ivanka, and presumably Ivanka did not want to be on the same flight as someone screaming at her and her children, JetBlue made the best call for both parties. No doubt, millions of Americans would love to give members of the Trump family a piece of their minds. But as this situation shows, screaming at them on a plane proves to be largely ineffective.

Many people, especially members of marginalized groups, are terrified of what their futures hold once Trump takes office. And this latest incident has sparked a debate online about what is and isn't an appropriate way to confront someone in power outside of a political context. Even those against Trump have come out to decry this method of protest:

While others have defended the way this passenger brought up his concerns:

Still, others are mostly just puzzled as to why Ivanka was flying coach on a commercial airline:

There's no question that an airline needs to take action when a customer, in this case Ivanka, feels threatened, and screaming at a person is generally never an effective way to get your message across. However, the issue of when it is and isn't appropriate to confront a political figure still remains, as does the matter of what constitutes as "appropriate." Debates around respectability politics will never be settled and will likely become more and more heated and critical if Trump enacts policies disenfranchising women and racial, religious, and sexual minorities.

But if there's one thing that all sides can possibly take away from this situation, it's that the Secret Service will have to do a better job covering the Trump family if they want to avoid confrontations like this going forward.