Photo: Matthias Schrader/AP/REX/Shutterstock
A new book about First DaughterIvanka Trumpand her husband,Jared Kushner— both of whom serve as senior advisers to PresidentDonald Trump— has already made headlines with claims that the presidentwanted the couple out of the White Houseand that Ivanka privately defended her dad after his incendiary response to the Charlottesville white nationalist rally.
While much of what Ward’s book describes about Ivanka and Kusher has been reported in some form before, Ward hones in on Ivanka’s public image as her father’s confidante and mollifier.
Ward also claims that Kushner is just as “sinister” — and self-serving — as his father-in-law.
The White House dismisses such reporting as baseless.
“It’s sad, but not surprising, the media would spend time promoting a book based on shady anonymous sources and false information instead of all the incredible work Jared and Ivanka are doing for the country,” Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a previous statement to PEOPLE. “The author, on her own website, listed this book in the category of ‘fiction’ — until recently changing it. Her initial representation was accurate.”
Sanders and other administration officials did not respond to a request for comment on the specific details from Ward’s book as described in this story.
Here are the highlights fromKushner, Inc., the latest inan ever-longer listof unflattering looksfrom inside the White House.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty
Kushner as ‘Frenetic’ Schmoozer
Ward’s book accuses Kushner of meeting with Russian representatives and other foreign officials while conducting family business — and suggests that, out of fear of having his “frenetic networking exposed,” Kushner may have played a part in the White House’s decision to refrain from disclosingits visitor logs in 2017.
“He’s not a pussycat,” Ward writes that a business associate of Kushner’s told her.
The associate described Kushner as “very pasty, well dressed, well put together, and always saying the right thing, doing the right thing,” according toKushner, Inc.But, said the associate, “He’d be tough, too.”
In April 2017, theNew York Timesreported that Kushner applied for national security clearance andomitted the factthat he’d met with the leader of a Russian bank and a Russian ambassador. (Kushner’s attorney said this was only in error.)
According to theTimes, Kushner was ultimately granted a security clearanceafter the president intervened, despite objections from government officials. (A spokesman for Kushner’s attorney previously said his clearance “was handled in the regular process with no pressure from anyone.” The White House declined to comment.)
From left: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty
How Family Influences Ivanka and Kushner
Ward delves into Ivanka’s relationship with President Trump — revealing, she writes, a daughter who has fought to be the favorite since Trump’s divorce from Ivana Trump in 1992. (“Donald’s love is tied to performance,” a New York business source told PEOPLEin a cover story two years ago. “They love him fiercely, and they are desperate for approval.”)
Perhaps even more interesting, though, is Ward’s dissection of the Kushner family.
According toKushner, Inc., family patriarch Charles continues to influence Jared. Founder of the family’s eponymous New Jersey real estate company, Charles previously served prison time for tax evasion and witness tampering after a convoluted scheme against his brother-in-law.
InKushner, Inc.,Ward writes that on the night of President Trump’s inauguration, the Kushners were kissing — they were so happy. “The Kushners, it seemed, would finally get the recognition Charlie felt they had long deserved,” she writes.
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As senior adviser, Ivanka has presented herself as a moderating influence on the president and a champion inside the White House for economic policies related to women and families. But, according to Ward, Ivanka’s main goal is to accrue more influence with her father’s support.
Ward writes thatSteve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and a noted media gadfly, said Trump hates “saying no” to Ivanka.
What Do Ivanka and Kushner Really Do All Day in the White House?
Together, Ivanka and Jared’s areas of responsibility in the White House can seem vast: She has been involved in various economic matters and family issues and, according to reports,unsuccessfully lobbiedher father not to withdraw from the international Paris Agreement to fight climate change.
Jared, meanwhile, has been involved with major foreign policy issues — including the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians — and with leadingan office to “overhaul” the efficacyof the federal government.
In reality, however, Ward writes that the couple drive their colleagues crazy.
According toKushner, Inc., a number of senior staffers told Ward that Jared “meddled ineverything, which led to his unofficial title as ‘Secretary of Everything.’ ” After Jared announced that they were “making enormous progress with NAFTA, we are agreeing on everything,” Ward writes that two people who heard this comment “wondered if [Jared] knew that NAFTA was a multithousand-page agreement, and that renegotiating it would involve legal negotiations with U.S. trade representatives.”
Ivanka is no less agitating, according to Ward’s book. When she isn’t wandering into her dad’s office to talk or trying to fly on military planes, she is pitching ideas, some of which — like the expansion of a child tax credit — seem out of step with standard Republican priority.
“Some Ivanka ideas were considered so ‘crazy’ that her offices were nicknamed ‘HABI’ — the Home of All Bad Ideas,” Ward writes.
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From left: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty
What Do Ivanka and Jared Really Believe — and What’s Next?
Though Ivanka and Jared have staunchly supported Trump during his campaign and throughout his administration, observers have doubted the former Manhattanites’ commitment to conservatism from the beginning.
“No one thought Jared or Ivanka believed in Trump’s populist platform,” Ward writes. A “prominent broker” told her that, “The two of them see this as a networking opportunity.”
source: people.com
