An upcoming and long-awaited new book claims that Donald Trump allegedly had to be stopped from firing his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner during his presidency. The kicker is that the twice-impeached former president, 76, was reportedly talked out of announcing the exits of his oldest daughter, 40, and son-in-law, 40 on Twitter by his former chief of staff, John Kelly, 72.
According to forthcoming book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, by journalist Maggie Haberman, Trump supposedly mentioned firing Ivanka and Kushner (who at the time were serving as senior White House aides) in meetings with Kelly and former White House counsel Don McGahn.
On how Donald Trump fires people https://t.co/oUQH1K7Ecg
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) September 28, 2022
Then-President Trump was just seconds away from firing off a tweet that would’ve alerted his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, that they were no longer employed in the White House https://t.co/GRyu31PYQA
— Yahoo (@Yahoo) September 28, 2022
In excerpts that were obtained by CNN before the book’s October 4th release, Haberman notes that Trump even went so far as to suggest he would announce that they were leaving via his Twitter account, but Kelly ultimately stopped him. This comes as shocking to many as both Ivanka and Kushner maintained notable presences in White House through Trump’s entire term and were never fired.
Haberman also noted in her new work, according to CNN, that Trump would often mock Kushner in private, saying that he “sounds like a child,” in 2017. If readers dig deep enough, as People Magazine writes, there are also several instances where the former president has been accused of threatening to fire both Ivanka and her husband.
Firstly, apart from Haberman’s latest work, in Vicky Ward’s 2019 book Kushner Inc. (which was largely based on anonymous interviews), she wrote that Trump once told Kelly: “Get rid of my kids; get them back to New York.” At the time, the allegation was dismissed by The White House and dubbed to be “based on shady anonymous sources and false information.”
New details show that Donald Trump reportedly had no issue firing his own family. https://t.co/o642ibqKRh
— SheKnows (@SheKnows) September 28, 2022
Then-president Donald Trump raised the prospect of firing Ivanka and Jared Kushner during meetings with then-chief of staff John Kelly. https://t.co/9yVYhG4Fat
— Intl. Business Times (@IBTimes) September 29, 2022
In a memorable 2018 article by The Washington Post, writers Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker claimed that Trump “has mused to Kelly that he thinks Ivanka and her husband should perhaps return to New York, where they would be protected from the blood sport of Washington and less of a target for negative media attention, White House officials said.”
In his own memoir, Kushner expanded on what readers sensed was a tense relationship between he and his wife and former chief of staff, Kelly. In Breaking History: A White House Memoir, Kushner alleges that Kelly apparently “shoved” Ivanka after a hostile White House meeting.
5 Democratic congressmen want answers from John Kelly about the decision to grant security clearances to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump despite numerous lapses in their original Standard Form-86s. pic.twitter.com/3M9lPKuU3c
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 11, 2018
Former WH Chief of Staff John Kelly says he disagreed with some Trump admin. policies and dodges questions about the president reportedly intervening to secure top-secret security clearances for his daughter Ivanka Trump and son–in–law, Jared Kushner. https://t.co/VujkqvDiT5
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 7, 2019
“One day he had just marched out of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office,” Kushner writes. “Ivanka was walking down the main hallway in the West Wing when she passed him. Unaware of his heated state of mind, she said, ‘Hello, chief.’ Kelly shoved her out of the way and stormed by. She wasn’t hurt, and didn’t make a big deal about the altercation, but in his rage Kelly had shown his true character.” Kushner added that Kelly offered a “meek apology” to Ivanka about an hour after this while in her West Wing office.
Many outlets have written about and reported on this notably tumultuous strained relationship between Kelly, Ivanka Trump and Kushner— with Kelly even reportedly downgrading Kushner’s security clearance from “top secret” in February of 2018. In 2019, Kelly left his chief of staff job, and said in an interview regarding Ivanka and her husband, “They were an influence that has to be dealt with.”
