Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway reportedly criticized former President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in her new book, calling him “shrewd and calculating” and saying he had an unchecked sense of power.
In her book “Here’s the Deal,” Conway referred to Kushner as “a man of knowing nods, quizzical looks, and sidebar inquiries” and said he knew that “no matter how disastrous a personnel change or legislative attempt may be, he was unlikely to be held accountable for it,” according to The Washington Post.
Trump’s former campaign manager also said Kushner suggested things like Trump going “to Ellis Island, where he’d stand at the foot of the Statue of Liberty to lead a naturalization ceremony.”
During his time as a presidential adviser, Kushner took on policy challenges including negotiating peace in the Middle East, solving the opioid crisis and confronting the emerging COVID-19 pandemic.
“There was no subject he considered beyond his expertise,” Conway reportedly writes, saying that if Martians attacked he would have “happily added them to his ever-bulging portfolio.”
“He misread the Constitution in one crucial respect, thinking that all power not given to the federal government was reserved to him,” Conway adds.
Conway’s husband George Conway is a fierce Trump critic, a dynamic often remarked upon during the former president’s time in office.
Conway writes that at one point Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, left her a post-it note with recommendations for a marriage counselor, neither of which the couple saw, per the Post.
The book also alleges that Trump questioned his run for president in the wake of the release of his “Access Hollywood” tape, in which the former president could be heard bragging to host Billy Bush about groping and kissing women without their consent.
“Should I get out [of the race]?” Trump reportedly asked Conway, according to The Daily Beast, also citing her new book.
“You actually can’t,” Conway wrote of her response, “unless you want to forfeit and throw the whole damn thing to Hillary.”
“I know you don’t like to lose,” she said she told Trump, “but I also know you don’t like to quit.”
Conway said she told then-candidate Trump that his words on the tape were “disgusting” and “reprehensible,” according to the book, which is set for release on Tuesday.
The Hill has reached out to a representative for Trump for comment.