June 23, 2021, 1:49pm
The only good thing about Jared Kushner’s book deal: it’s making Trump angry. A source told CNN that Trump is envious of Kushner’s deal with Harper Collins’s conservative imprint Broadside Books. According to a Kushner associate, the book deal is seven figures. Add this to Mike Pence’s lucrative book deal with Simon & Schuster and you have a full-blown Trump jealousy spiral.
According to Broadside, Kushner’s book “will be the definitive, thorough recounting of the administration—and the truth about what happened behind closed doors.” This language is likely galling to Trump, who has been shut out by mainstream publishers simply because a book written by him would be too hard to fact-check. Two Trump associates told CNN that Trump fears Kushner will use the book to take credit for some of Trump’s achievements: “It is not a secret President Trump doesn’t like when he thinks other people are getting attention for something he feels he has facilitated. There’s a sweet spot between saying nothing about work you did and saying too much that everyone has to find—or else he gets triggered.”
According to CNN’s sources, Trump’s book deal envy has prompted constant complaining about Kushner, including him questioning whether Kushner “accomplish[ed] peace in the Middle East after all.” Well, we know the answer to that one.
[h/t CNN]