Jared Kushner’s autobiography is due out August 23, but excerpts from Breaking History: A White House Memoir keep leaking. It also discusses how Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump met.
In the book, Kushner not only reveals how things first sparked between him and Ivanka. He also says that Donald Trump wanted to convert him to Christianity before marriage – and actually wanted football star Tom Brady as his son-in-law.
From his time in the White House, Kushner describes his cancer – as well as physical threats from Trump’s ex-adviser Steve Bannon. Kushner first met Donald Trump in a real estate deal, he writes. He then suggested a date with his daughter.
From the first meeting, Ivanka and he discovered a lot of common interests: for example for small bars in New Jersey, or NASCAR. At a second lunch at Kushner’s favorite Indian place, the conversation was so lively and long that both canceled all later appointments for the day.
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“Then I showed Ivanka neighborhoods she didn’t know and also used the dates to explore real estate. On Sunday mornings we would play backgammon for hours in a cafe, read the newspaper and drink coffee,” Vanity Fair quoted from the 500 pages.
As a devout Jew, however, he ended the relationship months later — until Wendi Murdoch, the media mogul’s then-wife, invited them both to their yacht for the weekend. Ivanka then wanted to convert to the Jewish faith.
Kushner then met her father twice. Trump initially said that Kushner could convert to Christianity after all – and that he actually had the footballer Tom Brady in mind as his son-in-law anyway. But the next time, Kushner asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
After seeing a Broadway musical, he proposed to her at his apartment. Romantic details from the memoir: Before that, Kushner had apparently asked his brother to decorate the apartment with rose petals and candles.
The couple actually wanted to go on safari to Africa for their honeymoon. But the weather didn’t cooperate: Jared and Ivanka got stuck in Amsterdam without luggage. “Some brides would have had a crisis,” writes Kushner. Not so Ivanka: Smiling, she made the best of it. In bathrobes, they enjoyed the food from the hotel restaurant and had “a lot of fun”.
Kushner reveals that her smile can also be deceptive: Ivanka was hit hard by the media mockery about her appearance at the G20 summit. A video shows her trying to attend a talk between the leaders of France, Britain and Canada with IMF Director Christine Lagarde – but in the clip Lagarde turns her back on Ivanka.
The media had misinterpreted this and maliciously, according to Kushner. His wife continued to smile “stoically”, but her “big heart” was hurt. “The media attacks could hurt,” Vanity Fair quotes Kushner as saying. “We had to learn to let go of what we couldn’t control and focus on what was important: our faith, our family, and things we wanted to achieve.”
Clear enemy of these common goals in the White House: Steve Bannon, who even threatened Kushner with violence. “If you act against me, I will break you in two,” the former Trump adviser warned. “Don’t f * ck with me,” quotes the US broadcaster CNN Bannon from the memoirs.
Ivanka was also physically assaulted once, reports the Washington Post. In a rage, Trump’s top adviser, John Kelly, pushed her. “He stormed out of the Oval Office after an argument. Then Ivanka crossed his path. She had no idea how angry he was and said, ‘Hello, boss.’ He pushed her out of the way and hurried on.”
In other chapters, too, he praises his wife’s strength. That’s why he only wanted to confide his thyroid cancer to her, writes Kushner according to the New York Times, – and not even to the president. In October 2019, on a flight, a doctor on Air Force One told him, “The test results are in. you have cancer We need an operation appointment immediately.”
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“Every night before I went to bed, I would look into the children’s rooms, how carefree they were sleeping. I felt guilty for spending so little time with them and missing their performances and sporting events. I promised myself I would make up for lost time after the years in the White House. I prayed for a successful surgery.”
Doctors removed a large part of the organ and warned him about changes or even loss of his voice, Kushner said. After the procedure, the biopsy confirmed the cancer diagnosis. Today he feels grateful: “Thank God it was recognized early. Luckily, the impact was minimal.”
The original to this post “Actually, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have long been separate people” comes from Bunte.de.
