The time Trump reportedly unwittingly called Jared Kushner an idiot

Donald Trump, Jared Kushner.
(Image credit: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Image)

Former President Donald Trump reportedly predicted he'd lose the 2020 election at one point in March of that year, as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the United States. And, without realizing it, he reportedly cast the blame on his son-in-law and trusted adviser, Jared Kushner.

"[COVID-19] Testing is killing me!," Trump reportedly shouted in a phone call with then-Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, a forthcoming book titled Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History by Washington Post reporters Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damien Paletta reveals. "I'm going to lose the election because of testing!"

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.