Kushner expected to publish a book on his White House experience
The memoir is expected to detail debates in the Oval Office and Jared Kushner’s meetings with Arab leaders
Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser, speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 4, 2020. Photo by Chris Kleponis/Polaris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh May 2, 2022
Jared Kushner, former White House senior advisor, is writing a memoir billed as a behind-the-scenes account of his father-in-law Donald Trump’s campaigns for president, and Kushner’s work in his administration.
In “Breaking History: A White House Memoir” slated for publication by Broadside Books in August, Kushner will take readers “inside debates in the Oval Office, battles at the United Nations, meetings in Arab palaces, and intense negotiations in North Korea, China, Mexico,” Axios reported on Monday.
The cover is a black-and-white photo of Kushner striding, cell phone to his ear, in front of Air Force One.
Kushner, who married Ivanka Trump in 2009, was a trusted and influential advisor to Trump during his unconventional presidential run in 2016 and was credited for some key policy decisions of the Trump administration. He came under fire from Democrats for violating anti-nepotism laws, but was also the architect of Trump’s vision for peace in the Middle East.
Among the issues in which Kushner played a leading role: trade negotiations with China, the bipartisan criminal justice bill, the moving of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, the Abraham Accords and the initial response to the coronavirus outbreak in 2020.
Trump thought highly of his son-in-law and once told a golfing buddy that Kushner “was the smartest guy I have seen in my life,” according to a new book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns. Trump joked that while Kushner “can’t throw a football ten yards,” he considered him to be “a great kid,” the authors write in “This Will Not Pass,” an account of the 2020 election and the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency, out on Tuesday. “He’s got my back.”
In a recent book, former Attorney General Bill Barr credited Kushner for expertly navigating the chaos that surrounded Trump in the Oval Office. “The more I had gotten to know Jared, the more I was impressed with his calm rationality and common sense,” Barr wrote.
Kushner was also behind some controversial decisions of the Trump White House. During the nationwide racial justice protests in 2020, Kushner and his wife Ivanka advised Trump to hold up a Bible in a photo-op outside a church that was damaged by a fire, a move that was widely criticized as co-opting religion for the sake of politics. Kushner also boasted about his close relationship with U.S. evangelicals, some of them controversial pastors. He once threw then Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer, out of his office, amid a fierce battle between the two countries over the annexation of the occupied West Bank.
After leaving the White House last year, Kushner moved to South Florida and formed the Abraham Accords Peace Institute and secured a $2 billion investment from a fund led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who has been widely condemned for his record on human rights — for his new private equity firm, Affinity Partners.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward On his first trip to Auschwitz, New Jersey governor urges vigilance against rising antisemitism
-
Fast Forward Survivors of the Holocaust and Oct. 7 embrace at Auschwitz, marking annual March of the Living
-
Fast Forward Could changes at the FDA call the kosher status of milk into question? Many are asking.
-
Fast Forward Long Island synagogue cancels Ben-Gvir talk amid wide tensions over whether to host him
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion Yes, the attack on Gov. Shapiro was antisemitic. Here’s what the left should learn from it
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to a Jewish society at Yale exposed deep rifts between US Jews
-
Fast Forward On his first trip to Auschwitz, New Jersey governor urges vigilance against rising antisemitism
-
Fast Forward Survivors of the Holocaust and Oct. 7 embrace at Auschwitz, marking annual March of the Living
-
Fast Forward Could changes at the FDA call the kosher status of milk into question? Many are asking.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.