President Donald Trump has tried — and failed to remove Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka from their White House jobs, even, at one point directing former chief of staff John Kelly to “get rid of” them, according to a new book that will hit book stores on March 19.
This seems like a good time to remind you that I have a book coming out on Jared Kushner on March 19: https://t.co/8oBd5WGAcO
— Vicky Ward (@VickyPJWard) March 1, 2019
In her book “Kushner, Inc., Greed. Ambition. Corruption,” investigative reporter Vicky Ward reports that Trump wanted Kelly to remove them because they “didn’t know how to play the game,” The New York Times reports. Trump was apparently unhappy with all the negative press his kids were generating, according to The Hill.
Kelly allegedly told Trump firing Ivanka and her husband would be tricky, but later on, agreed with him “to make life difficult enough to force the pair to offer their resignations.”
Obviously, Trump’s been unsuccessful in doing this, and sources tell The Times that the president is still ambivalent about his desire for them to leave.
Kelly resigned from his position in December, and if anything, Kushner and Ivanka Trump have become more influential, not less. Kushner was even able to use his influence to ensure the passage of a criminal justice reform bill last year.
White House officials have dismissed the allegations in Ward’s book. Peter Mirjanian, a spokesman for Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has also dismissed it, telling The Times “it seems [Ward] has written a book of fiction rather than any serious attempt to get the facts.”
“Every point that Ms. Ward mentioned in what she called her ‘fact-checking stage’ was entirely false,” he said. “Correcting everything would take too long and be pointless.”
But there has been one positive side-effect regarding Ivanka Trump and Kushner’s positions at the White House. The couple is largely responsible for the ouster of Steve Bannon, who was removed from his job as chief strategist after repeated clashes with Ivanka Trump and Kushner, The New York Times reports.
Indeed, the fight between Ivanka Trump and Bannon was a brutal one, Ward’s book reports, with Bannon accusing her of leaking information, The Washington Post reports. She alleges this conversation between the two took place:
“Everybody knows you leak,” Bannon said.
“You’re a f**king liar,” she responded. “Everything that comes out of your mouth is a f**king lie.”
“Go f**k yourself. … You are nothing,” he retorted.
Predictably, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed the book as questionable, People reports.
“It’s sad but not surprising, the media would spend time promoting based on shady anonymous sources and false information instead of all the incredible work Jared and Ivanka are doing for the country,” she said in a statement to People.
Huckabee Sanders claimed that Ward changed the information on her own website, having originally listed the book as “fiction.”
“Her initial representation was accurate,” Huckabee Sanders wrote.
Even if the press secretary’s allegations are true, Ward’s book is still a reminder of just how unstable this family and their associates really are. Let’s hope when the 2020 elections come around that this is the end of this sordid story.
Here’s what a CNN report says about Ward’s book.
Featured image license Public Domain by Shealah Craighead, The White House via Wikimedia Commons
