The time Trump reportedly unwittingly called Jared Kushner an idiot


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!"
Trump reportedly then wondered "what idiot had the federal government" take charge of coronavirus testing in the U.S. "Uh, do you mean Jared?," Azar responded, referring to Kushner, who just a few days before the call "had vowed to take charge of a national testing strategy with the help of the private sector," Abutaleb and Paletta write. Read more details from their book at The Washington Post.
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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.
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