Will and Grace star Debra Messing takes down Ivanka Trump in barnstorming GLAAD speech

Ivanka Trump might have long been viewed as a “moderating force” on her father but this has promptly changed in recent weeks. Critics from all angles are now calling on the first daughter to stand up to President Donald Trump.

Debra Messing is among these steadily multiplying detractors. The actor, who played Grace Adler on the wildly popular sitcom Will & Grace for eight years, has lambasted the President’s second child for failing to hold him to account.

In a speech which managed to incorporate humour and straightforward indignation, Messing argued Ms Trump failed to live up to her feminist pledges.

Taking to the stage at the annual Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards in New York City on Saturday, Messing, who has long been viewed as something of a gay icon, launched into an impassioned plea levied at the first daughter.

"There is someone I would like to make a direct appeal to this evening: The Secretary of State, Ivanka Trump," she said. "Ivanka, girlfriend, what are you doing? Come on, it's me, Deb, let's talk for a second, one Jewish mother to another. It is not enough to simply say that women's issues are important to you, it's time to do something."

While Messing is Jewish and her ancestors emigrated from Russia and Poland, Ms Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner who is also a senior White House advisor.

“Ivanka, you can change the lives of millions of women and children just by telling your dad stories about real people who are suffering,” she continued. “Don’t let him separate immigrant mothers from their American-born children. Don’t let him take healthcare away from women who need it.”

“Ivanka, please, please stop blindly defending your father and start defending what you say. You can’t just write hashtag women who work and think you’re advancing feminism. You need to be a woman who does good work - hashtag say what you mean and mean what you say.”

“Ivanka we know you love the guy who does your hair colour, it’s good by the way, so do right by your colourist and by all of us,” she quipped prompting boisterous laughter and applause from the audience.

“Imagine how you will feel sitting at Passover Seder if you can tell your children that you fought for justice and freedom. It will make you feel richer than owning all the skyscrapers and golf courses in the world … If you get Steve Bannon out of office, I bet we’ll put you back in Nordstrom.”

Nordstrom is, of course, the luxury America chain which recently announced it was dropping Ivanka Trump’s line of clothing and shoes due to a sharp decline in sales after a campaign to boycott her range.

Ms Trump, one of President Trump’s closest confidantes, has been plagued by a slew of criticism in recent weeks, with some labelling her an “accomplice” and arguing she is “complicit” in the actions of the Trump administration. Hollywood actor Scarlett Johansson even ruthlessly mocked her in a Saturday Night Live spoof perfume ad called “Complicit”.

Despite this, the mother-of-three, who has been described as the “shining star of the Trump family ensemble”, continues to be one of the more PR polished members of the Trump family.

Messing, who was an ardent Hillary Clinton supporter, not only took aim at Ms Trump but also laid into her father and Vice President Mike Pence.

"It is time to make American gay again. Someone's gotta take down Mother Pence. Talk about a low hanging fruit."

“Things are getting dire … to paraphrase Charles Dickens, ‘This year has sucked,’ ” she joked. “Unless you are an unenlightened straight cisgender white male, you are a target. That makes us all a target. There is a very bad and very orange man in the White House. At least a few times a month.”