Donald Trump’s golden couple keep their distance from Dad
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are tired of Donald Trump’s ongoing rage about the result of last year’s presidential election.
Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner are thought to be distancing themselves from Donald Trump after his long tirades about the result of last year’s US presidential election.
According to a dozen former administration officials and confidantes, the gulf between the former president and his daughter and son-in-law is widening as he complains ceaselessly about his election loss to Joe Biden and casts doubt on Mr Kushner’s accomplishments during his presidency.
One person who spoke to Mr Trump told CNN he had reacted jealously to 40-year-old Kushner’s reported seven-figure book deal and worried that his son-in-law would take credit for his achievements.
Ms Trump, 39, hopes to put the White House years behind her and enjoy a quieter life, sources said. She wants to support her father but is reluctant to endorse his unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud. While her father was president, Ms Trump and her husband both worked as his senior advisers.
“They weren’t around for the usual spring and summer events at Mar-a-Lago,” one family friend said. Another compared Mr Kushner’s approach to Mr Trump to “a parent who sticks around less and less each morning while they’re transitioning their kid to daycare”.
And while he often has a rotating audience of cheering listeners, the gap between Mr Trump and his daughter and son-in-law grows wider by the week, according to the 12 former Trump White House officials, former administration officials, family friends, acquaintances and members of Mr Trump’s team who spoke to CNN about changes to the former president’s current inner circle.
A large part of the reason for the separation was Mr Trump’s constant harping on the past and his inability to move on.
He has also started to question the role that Mr Kushner – one of the few people who were able to stay close to Mr Trump throughout his two presidential campaigns and White House tenure – has played in his presidential legacy.
After leaving Washington, Mr Kushner and Ms Trump moved to a Miami high-rise while waiting for the construction of their mansion on a nearby private island.
News of a rift came as Republicans in Michigan slapped down Mr Trump’s claims of rampant voter fraud in the state, which Mr Biden won by 154,000 votes last year.
In a report wrapping up an eight-month inquiry, the state Senate’s Republican-controlled oversight committee found no evidence of systemic fraud in Michigan’s election such as dead voters, ballot dumps, electronic vote manipulation and precincts with 100 per cent turnout.
“The committee strongly recommends citizens use a critical eye and ear toward those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain,” the report said.
The state will not carry out an audit of the ballot, as Arizona has done.
The Times, agencies
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