Gavin Newsom Reveals Trump Insulted Jared Kushner to His Face — And He ‘Let Him Do It’

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has revealed that President Donald Trump insulted his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to his face during a 2018 trip to the Golden State.

The Atlantic‘s Helen Lewis discussed the incident in a review of Newsom’s new memoir, Young Man in a Hurry.

“One of the book’s most arresting scenes comes in 2018 when, as governor-elect, Newsom first meets Donald Trump in person after wildfires in California. On Marine One, Trump tells a story about how he tried to set up his daughter Ivanka with the NFL quarterback Tom Brady, only to discover that she was already dating some schmuck whose father had just got out of prison,” wrote Lewis. “This schmuck is Jared Kushner, who is sitting right there as his father-in-law laments what his daughter could have had. ‘In front of the governor and future governor of California, Trump was making his son-in-law feel two feet tall,’ Newsom writes. ‘And Kushner just let him do it.’ Trump, in Newsom’s telling, is yet another controlling patriarch whose approval is impossible to win.”

Trump announced his intention to nominate Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, to serve as his. ambassador to France in a November 2024 Truth Social post. The elder Kushner, who was convicted of tax evasion and witness tampering in 2005, received a pardon from Trump at the tail end of his first term in the White House.

Ambassador Kushner was recently rebuked by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who moved to ban Kushner from meeting with French officials for failing to appear at a meeting.

“In light of this apparent failure to grasp the basic requirements of the ambassadorial mission and the honour of representing one’s country, [Barrot] has requested that he no longer be allowed direct access to members of the French government,” his ministry said in a statement on the matter. “It remains, of course, possible for Ambassador Charles Kushner to carry out his duties and present himself at the Quai d’Orsay, so that we may hold the diplomatic discussions needed to smooth over the irritants that can inevitably arise in a friendship spanning 250 years.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!