Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump’s policy ace and fixer, said he spent “millions” on legal fees to fend off Democratic attacks during his four years inside the West Wing.
Kushner, promoting his memoir Breaking History, Amazon’s No. 3 bestseller, told top radio interviewer Hugh Hewitt that he was surprised when the Democrats came for him because he had sold off all of the assets he thought would conflict with his job as senior adviser.
“I don’t advertise it, because I don’t want people, I’m not looking for people to feel bad for me. But I spent many millions of dollars in legal fees. But I, it was a decision I made. I was serving. I was under attack,” he said in the interview last night.
“I was making a lot of money beforehand in the private sector. I basically volunteered for four years, didn’t take a salary. I didn’t even take health insurance, because I didn’t want people to say so, I had to buy my own health insurance on the exchange, which turned out to be very, very expensive. All of Trump’s campaign speeches were right about that. And then I had to pay all my legal bills as well,” he recalled.
Before joining the White House, Trump’s son-in-law said he met with ethics officials.
“I had, you know, several hundred assets they told me to sell. I think it was, like, 80 different assets. I disposed of them in the manner they did, and then they certified me that I had no conflicts. And so basically, I thought that I was fine,” said Kushner, who is now living in Florida with his wife Ivanka and their children.
Nevertheless, he recalled when the New York Times hit him for allegedly “doing business” with a former banker just by virtue of being in a White House meeting also attended by the banker.
In a humorous aside, he added: “Actually, it was funny, because that morning, you know, I get a call from President Trump at 7:30. I’m in my office, and he says you know, did you read the, you know, how could you do that? I was, like, I didn’t do anything. And he says what do you mean you didn’t do it? This was on the front page of the New York Times. I said wait a minute. So when they write about me, it’s true, and when they write about you, it’s fake news?”
Since the book came out, Kushner has been peppered with questions about his future plans and if it would include a return to a Trump White House, should the former president run again and win.
The #AmericaFirstAgenda needed a permanent home, and it got one at @a1policy!
It is an honor to carry on the mission alongside @Linda_McMahon and @larry_kudlow.
Thank you to my dear friend @jaredkushner for highlighting our policy work. pic.twitter.com/PfbWl4y9ZJ
— Brooke Rollins (@BrookeLRollins) August 25, 2022
So far, he has been coy but encouraging of non-Washingtonians to be ready to serve because they bring a different perspective to government that lifelong bureaucrats can’t.
He also pointed to a Trump-associated group, the America First Policy Institute headed by Brooke Rollins, Larry Kudlow, Linda McMahon, and Chad Wolf, which Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum called a potential “Cabinet in waiting.” “What they’ve been doing is creating what I would say is the bench for the Republican Party, but the Trump Republican Party,” he said.
