According to author Vicky Ward, who wrote "Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump" -- father-in-law Donald was very unhappy about Jared's inability to fill out his security clearance application.
"He also really hated it when they got all the negative press about using private e-mail servers," she told New Day host John Berman. She said Trump wanted them gone.
"But the interesting thing is that John Kelly did what he was asked. He made life really unpleasant for Jared and Ivanka. They sort of -- they were ready to leave, and it was Trump who couldn't pull the trigger. And I think his supporters actually believed that sort of he needs to fire them to save his presidency," she said.
"There are so many things in this book, both big and little, that I'd love to cover. I'll start with the big and then go to a few of the little. But you just said they're dangerous," Berman said. "Why do you think they're dangerous?"
"Well, let's start with the fact that instead of solving Middle East peace, Jared nearly put us into a war in the region. You know, his -- the taking over control of the State Department, basically, taking Rex Tillerson's portfolio out of his hands, particularly in the Middle East, his complete control of the relationship with MBS in Saudi Arabia meant that he kind of got played by MBS. He pushed for Trump to hold this -- the first official American visit was not to a country with shared democratic values but to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, brutal regime. The theme of the summit was all about cooperation," she said.
"Days later, the Saudis made a mockery of the United States by turning around and blockading with U.S. support that Rex Tillerson firmly believed was Jared. They blockaded Qatar, they wanted Qatar's money. Qatar has an American airbase. That is our security on the line. That was when Rex Tillerson and Jim Mattis, the defense secretary who had no idea about any of this, thought that Jared went from being a really annoying obstacle and meddler to being downright dangerous."
"And you suggest in regards to this, in particular to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Qatar had been at odds and that almost moved to an all-out shooting war, you suggest or imply that Jared Kushner had a financial interest in Qatar and may have been acting out of a sense of revenge, that Qatar wouldn't invest with him. Explain," Berman said.
"So Charles Kushner had just asked the Qataris for a billion dollars to save their -- a building that was a financial catastrophe for the Kushner family. The Qataris at that point turned him down. And lo and behold, our foreign policy turns negative towards them. l will have to say that a year later when the Qataris are offering money, our policy changes. The U.S. now no longer supports the blockade," Ward said.
"In the title of the book, you used the word corruption. You wrote a lot about Jared Kushner here. Is there proof yet? When I mean proof, is there legal action that you have seen or heard from in the people you've talked to against Jared Kushner? Because Lord knows, he's been under investigation for the last two years. The Mueller investigation seems to have been very broad and dealt exclusively, or extensively I should say, with foreign interests here. Do you think they found any evidence of foreign influence or corruption over Jared Kushner?" Berman asked.
"I say in the book that Mueller has definitely passed a lot of that stuff off to more appropriate avenues because there's a lot of Middle Eastern money and Mueller found himself interviewing, for example, the Lebanese business George Nader. That's not going to be part of his report, which is all about Russia, right? So all that business stuff I think you're going to see sent to New York," Ward said.
