President Donald Trump is reportedly furious at son-in-law Jared Kushner’s handling of the coronavirus response, and now he’s being blamed for the president’s response.
Kushner repeatedly told the president that the media was overhyping the threat from the coronavirus outbreak, which Trump then repeated publicly — undercutting dire warnings from doctors and scientists, reported the New York Times.
Trump spent the first weeks of the outbreak downplaying the threat, which he called a “hoax,” and accused the media and Democrats of trying to “inflame” the situation in another attempt to remove him from office.
The Times reported that Kushner, who is both Trump’s son-in-law and a White House senior adviser, was the source of those claims.
Kushner has also reportedly tried to take on more responsibility for the crisis management despite his lack of qualifications, and urged the president to implement a hastily constructed European travel ban and declaration of a national emergency.
The president’s early denials have apparently destroyed public trust in his handling of the crisis, with 60 percent of Americans saying they have little or no trust in what he says about the global pandemic.
Trump, according to Vanity Fair, is furious at his daughter Ivanka Trump’s husband.
“I have never heard so many people inside the White House openly discussed how pissed Trump is at Jared,” one former West Wing official said.