Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump refused to release a statement during the 2024 presidential campaign saying President Donald Trump is not “antisemitic,” according to reporting by Michael Wolff in his new book, All or Nothing.
Newsweek reached out to Kushner via his company’s website for comment on Saturday morning.
Why It Matters
President Trump has long faced accusations from critics that he’s antisemitic, and the allegations were raised again during the 2024 campaign. Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, is Jewish, and his wife, Ivanka, converted to Judaism before they married.
Donald Trump has repeatedly touted his support for Jews and Israel but has also accused American Jews who do not support him of being “disloyal.” During the 2024 campaign, he suggested his potential loss would be the fault of Jewish voters who did not support him. The president’s support and flirtation with far-right groups who have neo-Nazi leanings has also sparked alarm from critics.
What To Know
Wolff, in new book set to be released on Tuesday, wrote that Kushner and Ivanka Trump declined requests from the Trump campaign to give a public endorsement, and also refused to release a statement stating that the president is not “antisemitic.”
“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 anti-Semitic. 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 anti-Semitic,” Wolff wrote.
The book continues: “‘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 said, finally ending it.”
Earlier in the book, Wolff also outlined alleged frustrations Donald Trump has with Kushner related to his Jewish identity and efforts in the Middle East during his first administration. Kushner was a key adviser during Donald Trump’s first term, and spearheaded deals between Israel and Arab countries, known as the “Abraham Accords.”
“One of the many reasons he’s mad at his son-in-law, Jared Kushner—Jewish Jared—to whom he gave carte blanche in a Mideast portfolio, is that he doesn’t understand why, after he did everything he did— with the embassy, with the Golan Heights, and with getting (well, with Jared getting) other Arab countries to go along with Israel—he still gets sh***y support from Jewish voters,” Wolff wrote.
The author also suggested that Kushner thought his father-in-law didn’t have much of a future after his first term.
“Kushner’s own clear and immediate post–White House plan was to put distance between himself and his father-in-law. Asked about his father-in-law’s future by a friend, Kushner replied, ‘What was Nixon’s future?'”
Former President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974 to avoid an impeachment by Congress over the infamous “Watergate scandal.”
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Is Michael Wolff Credible?
Some critics have questioned the accuracy of some of Wolff’s previous claims about Trump and the Trump administration. Arkansas’ Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican who served as White House press secretary under Trump from 2017 to 2019, said that Wolff’s previous book Fire and Fury contained “mistake after mistake after mistake.”
She questioned Wolff’s integrity, saying, “I think you have to look at this author’s track record,” and referred to the book as “tabloid gossip” and “full of lies.”
Wolff responded that he has recordings and notes and stands by “absolutely everything in the book.”
What People Are Saying
Trump White House’s communications director Steven Cheung told Newsweek on Saturday: “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of sh** 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.”
Jared Kushner posted last month to X, formerly Twitter, on Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day, including a photo of him and his wife with the president: “Congratulations to President Trump. I am excited for the incredible opportunities ahead for America and the world.”
Ivanka Trump posted several photos of herself with Kushner and her father at his inauguration to X on January 20. She captioned one: “45 / 47” followed by three American flag emojis.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said in September 2024: “Preemptively blaming American Jews for your potential election loss… increases their sense of alienation in a moment of vulnerability when right-wing extremists and left-wing anti-zionists continually demonize and slander Jews.”
What Happens Next?
Wolff’s book is set to be released on Tuesday. Kushner and Ivanka Trump have not taken any role in the new Trump administration but have continued to publicly show support for Donald Trump since he won last year’s election and took office.