In the new, soon-to-be published book Kushner, Inc., journalist Vicky Ward plans to tell the story of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s rise to power in President Trump’s White House. The husband and wife, who are also the president’s son-in-law and daughter, have become advisors to the president, but according to Ward and the 220 people she interviewed, their spots have not always been secure.
According to the New York Times‘ coverage of the book, Trump has “waffled” over the past two years about whether he wants Ivanka and Kushner in his administration. He even told John F. Kelly, his former chief of staff, “Get rid of my kids; get them back to New York.” It’s reported that Trump said the two “didn’t know how to play the game” and were garnering bad press. Kelly and Trump had planned to “make life difficult enough to force the pair to offer their resignations.” This has yet to happen, and Kelly resigned in 2018.
The Times also reports that, throughout the book, Ward “tries to unravel the narrative that the two serve as stabilizing voices inside an otherwise chaotic White House, depicting them instead as Mr. Trump’s chief enablers.” She tells the story of a time when Gary Cohn, the White House’s former top economic advisor, shared his concerns with Ivanka over Trump’s comments that there was “blame on both sides” after a violent 2017 white nationalist protest in Charlottesville. Cohn was considering stepping down and was surprised when Ivanka told him, “My dad’s not a racist; he didn’t mean any of it.”
Ward also focuses on Ivanka and Kushner’s childhood, explaining that while Ivanka was wealthy, she was also alone, describing one incident where she was dropped off at a Connecticut boarding school in a limousine by herself. Ward also writes that Ivanka and Kushner’s families were apprehensive about their marriage, and Trump once joked that Ivanka could have married New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. (Brady married model Gisele Bündchen in 2009.) Trump even joked to the Patriots’ owner that “Jared is half the size of Tom Brady’s forearm.”
In a statement, a spokesman for Kushner’s lawyer told the Times that it seems Ward has “written a book of fiction rather than any serious attempt to get the facts.” The statement continues, “Correcting everything wrong would take too long and be pointless.”
And while Trump might have once wanted to dismiss his children from the White House, their respective powers have only grown. Trump’s new budget proposal includes increased spending on childcare, thanks to Ivanka, and late last year, Kushner helped pass a criminal justice bill.
Kushner, Inc. is set to be released on March 19.
Be the first to comment