Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner refused to sign memo saying Trump was not antisemitic, book says
Donald Trump's Jewish daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, refused to sign a statement saying Trump was not antisemitic, according to a new book by veteran Trump tell-all author Michael Wolff.
'As he kept seeming to be incapable of offering absolute support for Israel in the wake of October 7,' Wolff writes, referring to the deadly 2023 attacks by Hamas, 'Trump, not for the first time, turned to Jared for Jewish cover, explicitly asking him and Ivanka for a public endorsement.
'As Trump had continued to waffle, the Washington Post, the campaign understood, was working on a piece that would recycle all the language Trump had variously used over the years, which, on its face, might certainly sound antisemitic. Kushner kept dodging on the formal endorsement of his father-in-law. The campaign then tried to settle for merely a statement from him that his father-in-law was not antisemitic.'
According to Wolff, Kushner finally said: 'No, Ivanka and I aren't going to do that. We're not going to go and put our names on something and get in the middle of things. That's just not what we're going to do this time.'
Kushner and Ivanka Trump were senior advisers to Trump during his first presidency, from 2017 to 2021. But they kept their distance after his attempt to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat to Joe Biden culminated in his supporters' January 6 attack on Congress. The couple have not taken up roles in his second administration after he won back the presidency in November at the expense of former vice-president Kamala Harris, though Kushner has been linked to Trump's controversial plans to depopulate and redevelop the Gaza strip after Israel's relentless assault in response to 7 October.
Wolff's book, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America, is his fourth on the president. The new volume was formally confirmed this week, shortly ahead of its US publication on Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.
Wolff's first Trump book, Fire and Fury, was released in 2018 and sold millions as Trump tried to block it, kicking off a lucrative rush of Trump-focused books that has shown new signs of life since he won re-election.
Wolff followed Fire and Fury with Siege and Landslide. Excerpts from All or Nothing have been published in Vanity Fair and the Daily Beast, the latter detailing what Wolff claims is Melania Trump's 'hatred' for her husband.
Announcing All or Nothing, publisher Crown said: 'Wolff's thesis in his 18 months of covering the campaign was that the establishment would destroy Trump, or Trump would destroy the establishment. All or Nothing is Wolff's panoramic and intimate picture of that battle … from indictments, to trials, to assassination attempts, to the humiliation and defenestration of a sitting president, to Trump's staggering victory.'
Last November, as Wolff wrote the book, a group of Trump aides including chief of staff Susie Wiles said: 'A number of us have received inquiries from the disgraced author Michael Wolff, whose previous work can only be described as fiction. He is a known peddler of fake news who routinely concocts situations, conversations, and conclusions that never happened. As a group, we have decided not to respond to his bad faith inquiries, and we encourage others to completely disregard whatever nonsense he eventually publishes. Consider this our blanket response to whatever he writes.'
On Friday, Trump White House communications director Steven Cheung told the Beast: 'Michael Wolff is a lying sack of shit and has been proven to be a fraud.
'He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.'
Among other moments in All or Nothing sure to be widely discussed, Wolff reports that Trump demanded to know 'what the fuck is wrong with' Elon Musk, the world's richest person who became a key campaign backer, and called JD Vance, the vice-presidential pick over whom Wolff says Trump had grave doubts, 'shifty, very shifty'.
Describing a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in October, where Trump survived an assassination attempt in July, Wolff writes: 'And Elon is here, waiting when [Trump's team] arrive[s], which is cause for a moment of consternation … Elon! Next only to Trump, there is Elon.'
Saying aides viewed Musk as 'a new, overwhelming, and discordant presence in the campaign', generating 'an ever-rising tide of bewildering, if not opaque, requests, orders, and recommendations', Wolff said aides thought Musk had 'elevated the Trump campaign in his own mind to a personal mission and religious cause', while 'the Trump circle' was 'already anticipating the earth shaking when he and Trump invariably f[e]ll out.
Sign up to First Thing
Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
'When they arrive, Elon – wandering about by himself, with only a thin layer of assistants or security – is hungry. This causes a kerfuffle and results in uncertainty over how to attend to him. Someone produces a bag of pretzel sticks.
'The suggestion is made that JD is here and would love to speak to him. Musk, sitting down and eating his pretzel sticks, politely declines: 'I've really no interest in speaking to a vice-president.'
'Later, called onstage, with no one having any idea what he might say, Musk bounds up and, suddenly – in Mick Jagger style, prancing and jumping-becomes the headline, his T-shirt rising far above his midriff.
'What the fuck is wrong with this guy?' says a bewildered Trump. 'And why doesn't his shirt fit?'
Elsewhere, Wolff describes Trump's extensive second thoughts about Vance, in one instance reportedly described in a phone conversation with an unnamed confidant.
'Yeah. What the fuck is with that name-change stuff?' Trump is depicted as saying. 'How many name changes has he had? That's shifty, that's very shifty. That's my staff fucking up. They know what I think about people changing their names. I think it's shifty. And they didn't tell me.'
Vance was born James Donald Bowman. After his parents split up he was adopted by his new stepfather and renamed James David Hamel. Long known as 'J.D.', he later changed to his surname to Vance, after the beloved grandmother of whom he writes in Hillbilly Elegy, his bestselling book from 2016. He eventually dropped the periods, to become 'JD'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
35 minutes ago
- The Independent
Dan Bongino wants to move FBI training program from iconic Quantico HQ to Alabama: report
Leaders in the FBI are reportedly pushing to move one of the bureau's training programs from its headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, to Huntsville, Alabama, as part of President Donald Trump's desire to move federal agencies out of the Washington D.C. area. Dan Bongino, the FBI deputy director, has preliminarily proposed moving the FBI National Academy, a 10-week training academy for 250 domestic and international law enforcement officers, to Huntsville, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday. The FBI's training program for new bureau hires and other parts of its facilities, including the laboratory division, would remain at Quantico, people familiar with the discussion told The Post. While the proposal is still in preliminary stages, it aligns with Trump's April deadline asking agencies to create plans to move their headquarters from Washington D.C., to separate areas of the country to ' be where the people are.' However, the push to move to Huntsville, the most populous city in Alabama, has drawn criticism from some personnel who believe the move could be unjustifiably costly, The Post reported. While the FBI has operated at Redstone Arsenal, a U.S. Army base near downtown Huntsville, for decades, some expressed concern that sending hundreds of staff and agents to set up the training facility would require upgrades. 'If you look at FBI field offices, for example, you'll see many that are not located in downtown areas given the highly specialized nature of these facilities and their security requirements,' Norman Dong, the former Public Buildings Service commissioner under the Obama administration, told Federal News Network in April. 'In places like Atlanta or Sacramento, these FBI offices are located far outside of the central city,' Dong added. The FBI Academy is currently located in Quantico, a town in Prince William County, Virginia, which is approximately 35 miles outside of D.C. A spokesperson for the FBI said that any relocation options were being evaluated to determine if it could save the bureau money while also serving as a sufficient facility. Since Trump took office in January, the bureau has undergone significant changes, beginning with its leadership. Trump nominated Kash Patel to serve as FBI director despite Patel having a history of taking controversial pro-Trump stances. The president then tapped Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who became a popular right-wing podcaster, as deputy director. After Patel was sworn in, he said he would relocate roughly 1,000 staff and agents out of the D.C. office and said he'd move 500 people to the Huntsville facility so the FBI could have more of a presence in other cities. Trump proposed moving federal buildings and agencies outside of D.C. during his first administration, but the plan did not have immense success, in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump moved the Bureau of Land Management's headquarters from D.C. to Grand Junction, Colorado in 2019 so it could be closer to the land it manages. However, a review by the Biden administration found that the move caused more than 80 percent of the agency's employees to leave. Eventually, the headquarters were restored back to Washington D.C.
The Independent
35 minutes ago
- The Independent
Les Miserables actors drop out because Trump is attending show
President Trump and Vice President Vance, along with their wives, will attend a performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center, marking Trump 's first visit to the venue during his second term. Trump 's decision to assume control of the Kennedy Center, replacing previous leadership and vowing to eliminate 'woke' programming, has sparked controversy. In response to Trump 's involvement, some cast members of Les Misérables are expected to boycott the performance. Following Trump 's takeover, several high-profile performers and members resigned, and the center has experienced a significant drop in ticket sales, leading to canceled performances. Trump has expressed his fondness for Les Misérables, even suggesting the possibility of extending its run at the Kennedy Center, which is currently scheduled through July 13.
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘We couldn't have scripted this better': The White House is thrilled with how events are unfolding in LA
Los Angeles may resemble a war zone, with thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines deployed in response to widespread anti-immigration raid protests, but the Trump White House reportedly couldn't be happier about the politics of the situation. 'We couldn't have scripted this better,' a senior White House aide told The Atlantic of the dynamic inside the Oval Office. 'It's like the 2024 election never ended: Trump is strong while Democrats are weak and defending the indefensible.' Trump insiders reportedly believe that the images of the protests, which have featured both large-scale peaceful demonstrations and multiple days of violence against police and immigration officers, as well as protesters burning vehicles and holding Mexican flags, play into the administration's message. On the campaign trail, Trump frequently claimed Democrats are weak on law and order, while alleging most immigrants are violent national security threats, despite data showing the opposite. 'This is what America voted for, period,' a Trump adviser told NBC News. 'This is the America First focus that got the president elected and is driven by nothing else than what he promised American voters.' 'Look at the violence, the attacks on law enforcement,' the adviser added. 'If Democrats want to support that, let them. This is why we win elections and they do not.' Trump has long valorized the military and called for them to form part of an aggressive response to civil unrest, reportedly sparring with his first term Defense Secretary Mark Esper over his opposition to sending active-duty troops to counter 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and allegedly asking if troops could 'shoot them in the legs or something.' During his first term, Trump ultimately deferred to state governors on whether to call up National Guard troops to respond to the 2020 protests, and governors in 32 states and Washington, D.C., ultimately did. This time around, Trump does not want to appeal to local leaders and is forging ahead on his own, including federalizing the California National Guard over the wishes of Los Angeles and state leaders, who have sued. 'Trump seems super intent on a very different path now, with a serious show of righteous force to protect American lives and property,' Steve Cortes, a longtime Trump adviser, told Politico. Another key force for the military-led response has been White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner who has repeatedly accused California officials of being in open rebellion against the government and its migration policies, a potential prelude to the White House invoking the emergency Insurrection Act. "Stephen has been clear in all the meetings: More military, faster," a Trump adviser told Axios. Top Democrats in California have accused the Trump administration of deliberately trying to provoke a crisis as a means to seize more power, first with heavy-duty immigration raids and then by invoking emergency powers to send military troops in to respond to the protests that followed. 'Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves,' California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a nationally televised speech Tuesday evening. 'But they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.' Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, meanwhile, has said the White House is using the crisis as a lab 'experiment.' 'This is chaos that was started in Washington,' Bass said Monday during a press conference. An outlier in his party, Senator John Fetterman has accused his fellow Democrats of losing 'the moral high ground' over the crisis by what he said was a refusal to 'condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.' Democratic leaders have generally condemned the violence and called for peaceful protest, while being sharply critical of the Trump administration's response. The Los Angeles crisis has also likely provided a welcome distraction from last week's major political scandal, the acrimonious public split between Trump and his former top ally, Elon Musk, who savaged the president's Big, Beautiful Bill spending package and accused Trump of being tied to the Jeffrey Epstein pedophilia scandal. In recent days, Trump and Musk have signaled they could be open to a reconciliation.
