Celebs Who Can't Stand Jared Kushner
As the head of then-candidate Donald Trump's digital marketing strategy, Jared Kushner was instrumental in his father-in-law's remarkable journey to the White House. He's also been a key player in 45's ever-controversial administration, too, serving as a senior presidential advisor throughout Trump's first term. Of course, with great power comes great scrutiny, and the Harvard University graduate has no doubt had to develop a much thicker skin since aligning himself with one of the most powerful and divisive families in all of America.
Indeed, in the wake of Trump's presidency, Kushner has been subjected to a barrage of criticism for his various tactics, strategies, and remarks relating to everything from national surveillance systems to the outbreak of COVID-19. And it's not just the political world that has been giving him both barrels, either. There's a long list of athletes, anchors, and Hollywood A-Listers who are unlikely to be sending Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump a Christmas card anytime soon — and that even includes an Oscar-winning actress who he used to call a friend. Here's a look at why the man dubbed by The Lincoln Project as the "Secretary Of Failure" is highly unlikely to be winning any popularity contests in the near future.
Seth Meyers isn't impressed with Jared Kushner's job performance
Unsurprisingly, America's comedic talk show circuit hasn't missed the opportunity to stick the knife into Jared Kushner since his rise up the political ranks, and few hosts have been as vocal about their disdain than Seth Meyers. The host of NBC's more politically-minded late night affair took particular umbrage with claims reported by Vanity Fair, which Kushner allegedly made during a closed-door White House briefing. "I have all this data about ICU capacity. I'm doing my own projections, and I've gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn't need all the ventilators," Kushner allegedly advised the president.
During a recording of Late Night with Seth Meyers from his home, the comedian responded, "Oh, you're doing your own projections? Did your parents just buy you a TI-84? You're not qualified to do anything, let alone tell New York how many ventilators they need. You're a nepotism case, and you only got the White House job because you married into the family, and because the security guards believed your fake ID." And that wasn't the worst of it — Meyers introduced Kushner as the "the guy Slenderman has nightmares about."
A few months later — as reported by Vanity Fair — Meyers again chastised Kushner, this time for his handling of the COVID-19 testing system. Alongside labelling Kushner a sociopath, Meyers also recommended him for the part of Hannibal Lecter should The CW ever decide to do a reboot of Silence of the Lambs.
Chelsea Clinton questions Jared Kushner's credentials
As you would expect, Chelsea Clinton isn't a particularly big fan of the man who helped Donald Trump to defeat her mother in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But many believed she had good reason to speak out about Jared Kushner and his position on the Coronavirus Task Force regardless. Indeed, in April 2020, the former first daughter took to Twitter to express her concerns that someone without any experience in the medical field had been appointed in such a key role.
In an apparent subtweet, Clinton wrote, "Keep thinking: I've a Masters in Public Health; wrote my doctoral dissertation on global efforts to tackle AIDS pandemic; co-authored a book on global health governance; teach MPH courses on health systems and global health and I'm not qualified to lead a national #covid19 effort."
A follower then pointed out how loudly Trump's supporters would shout if the situation was reversed and Clinton's husband Marc Mezvinsky, rather than Ivanka Trump's, had been given the responsibility of leading the fight against COVID-19. The only child of former president Bill and almost-president Hillary replied, "My imagination doesn't stretch that far." According to the Daily Mail, Clinton had also previously retweeted Senator Brian Schatz's claim that "we are seeing preventable mass deaths in the United States."
Jim Carrey paints Jared Kushner as a 'self-unmade man'
You can always rely on Jim Carrey to do things outside the norm. After all, this is the man who spent months essentially terrorizing the cast and crew of Man on the Moon while constantly staying in character as Andy Kaufman. So it was little surprise that the Dumb and Dumber star expressed his dissatisfaction with Jared Kushner not with words but with paint.
Yes, it turns out that the funnyman is quite the talented artist, too. And in 2018 he unveiled his latest masterpiece, a highly unflattering portrait of the White House advisor titled "Self-Unmade Man." In the picture, Kushner's eyes are emblazoned with dollar signs, while the background is filled with the burning of New York City's 666 Fifth Avenue, a building that Kushner Properties owned at the time.
Kushner isn't the only member of the Trump family to get the Carrey treatment, either. In fact, the rubber-faced star spent much of the following two years taking aim at the 45th president in the name of art. Notable pieces included an asteroid bearing Trump's face hurtling towards Earth, Trump stamping on the White House as a giant monster named Greedzilla, and Trump spewing up green bile in a manner reminiscent of The Exorcist. Carrey certainly has quite the active imagination, that's for sure.
Natalie Portman labeled Jared Kushner a 'supervillain'
Jared Kushner may well have little trouble brushing off insults from those Hollywood liberals who he's never even met in person. Natalie Portman's criticism, however, must surely sting a bit. Why? The Black Swan star once considered the real estate developer a personal friend.
Yes, long before Portman won an Academy Award and even longer before Kushner began his ascent to the White House, the pair became unlikely allies while studying at Harvard University. The actress revealed this startling news during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2018. And unsurprisingly, the host didn't waste the opportunity to take a cheeky dig at the man he once dubbed Collusion Ken to Ivanka Trump's Nepotism Barbie.
"Are you saying they let dummies into Harvard?" Colbert quipped. Unfortunately for the comedian, Portman wasn't too forthcoming about her former classmate. She did, however, confirm that Kushner "wasn't that great of a student." And she did throw in a perfect bit of shade, adding, "Unfortunately, it's not very ... there's not a lot funny to say about someone you were friends with becoming a super-villain." A super-villain. Ouch! Guess we shouldn't expect to see Portman and Kushner reminiscing at a class of 2003 reunion any time soon.
John Oliver feels Jared Kushner is too relaxed
The subject of Jared Kushner's White House duties has inevitably come under scrutiny from John Oliver, the British comedian renowned for tearing political figures a new one on his award-winning topical show Last Week Tonight. But there was something unusual about his segment on the advisor in March 2019: Oliver praised Kushner for his smooth complexion.
Of course, this turned out to be a backhanded compliment, made only to question the Harvard graduate's commitment to his role. According to Bustle, Oliver began, "How the f*** does he [Kushner] look so well-rested!? This is a guy who's not just brokering peace in the Middle East, he's tackling the opioid crisis and national infrastructure as head of the Office of American Innovation while constantly traveling halfway around the world — and doing it all while navigating the psychosexual Stalingrad that is marriage to Donald Trump's daughter."
The fearless host then posed the theory that Kushner's able to maintain his smoother skin through sheer ignorance. "It is deeply worrisome how unworried he looks. The only way you maintain that glow with that to-do list is by not really understanding anything on it." To further clarify his point, Oliver then showed audiences a picture of the ex-Secretary of State who helped to broker the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, Warren Christopher. Unsurprisingly, he had "the jowls of a deeply stressed individual."
Andrew Napolitano has constitutional issues with Jared Kushner
You know that you're not a particularly popular Republican when even the ultra-conservative Fox News turns against you. Yes, appearing on Cavuto Coast to Coast in April 2020, Andrew Napolitano, the network's legal analyst, made his feelings about Jared Kushner and one of his proposals for the coronavirus outbreak crystal clear.
Napolitano felt the need to speak out after Kushner revealed plans to create a surveillance system which would reportedly help to track COVID-19. The former Brooklyn Law School professor remarked that he found the idea terrifying and that anyone else who believes in the Constitution would agree. "The Fourth Amendment says the federal government— no government can surveil you without a search warrant! They can't engage in mass surveillance, whether it's for your safety or health or just for their lurid desires of knowing where everybody is."
This wasn't the first time that the ex-New Jersey Superior Court Judge had criticized Kushner on air, either. A year earlier, Napolitano told viewers of the Fox Business show Kennedy (via Yahoo! Movies) that the White House advisor had been "disingenuous and deceptive" with his attempts to downplay Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election: "The attack on our democracy involved much more than the purchase of Facebook ads."
Shep Smith thinks Jared Kushner could have faced prison
Former Fox News anchor Shep Smith could barely hide his disdain for Jared Kushner during a segment about the mess of Kushner's security clearance application forms in February 2018. In fact, the broadcast journalist told Shepard Smith Reporting viewers — as reported by HuffPost — that he believed the White House advisor should be heading straight for jail.
Smith argued that if anyone else applying had made as many omissions on the relevant paperwork as the Harvard University graduate had, that "can be a crime, punishable by prison." The host then wryly remarked, "Not in this case, apparently" before going into detail about Kushner's lack of transparency.
According to Smith, Ivanka Trump's husband failed to mention at least 100 different "contacts with foreigners" when he submitted his application. "[He] later had to go back and include them ... but he did not include the meeting in Trump Tower with the Russian lawyer and the Russian translator. ... So that was another amendment to this thing." And Smith wasn't just being dramatic with his talk of prison time for lying on this kind of documentation, known as in the U.S. government as the SF-86 form. Per Clearance Jobs, "The U.S. Criminal Code (title 18, section 1001) provides that knowingly falsifying or concealing a material fact is a felony which may result in fines and/or up to five (5)years imprisonment."
Vin Baker called out Jared Kushner's ignorance
Jared Kushner incurred the wrath of the basketball world with comments he made about the NBA's Black Lives Matter protest in September 2020. The Milwaukee Bucks had famously refused to take to the court in the wake of the Jacob Blake police shooting in Wisconsin, sparking a series of similar incidents across the sport. And it's fair to say that the White House advisor wasn't exactly sympathetic to their cause.
In an interview on CNBC, Kushner said, "Look, I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially. So they have that luxury, which is great." Ivanka's husband then went on to argue that the league's various "slogans and signals" need to blossom into "actual action that's going to solve the problem."
Vin Baker, assistant coach of the Bucks, was unsurprisingly not enamored with Kushner's response. Speaking to Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer on POLITICO Playbook, he said, "There's no sensitivity there. I don't obviously agree with the comment. There's a level of ignorance there." Baker was backed up by Alex Lasry, the franchise's senior vice president: "This wasn't anyone taking a night off and then just going back to their hotel room being like, 'Eh ... I just didn't want to play today.' This was a statement."
Hillary Clinton believes Jared Kushner has ideas above his station
Like daughter, like mother. As with her only child Chelsea Clinton, Hillary Clinton certainly hasn't been afraid to vent her frustrations about Jared Kushner on Twitter. And you can't exactly blame her. He is Donald Trump's son-in-law after all. The White House advisor has given Clinton plenty of ammunition since her defeat in the 2016 presidential election, too.
In 2020, the Harvard graduate told TIME magazine that he couldn't confirm whether the impending presidential election would be held on its proposed date of November 3. "I'm not sure I can commit one way or the other, but right now that's the plan." Seeing red, Clinton subsequently tweeted, "I can't believe I have to write this sentence, but the president's son-in-law doesn't get to decide when the election is."
A year earlier, the former First Lady also remarked on Kushner's apparent use of WhatsApp to communicate with officials based outside America. Clinton had previously been blasted by the Trump campaign for using a private email server during her role as Secretary of State. And she didn't miss the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy, retweeting a "But his WhatsApp" message from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before adding, "Tell me about it."
Nancy Pelosi called Jared Kushner a 'slumlord'
Nancy Pelosi has never been one to mince words when it comes to the Trump administration. So it was little surprise when the House speaker labeled Jared Kushner a "slumlord" in response to the president's less than complimentary comments about the city of Baltimore.
After learning that Donald Trump had tweeted that the home of "The Star Spangled Banner" was a "rat and rodent infested mess," Pelosi brought up the fact that one of his close relations actually owns various properties there. According to Politico, she said, "The president — this comes as no surprise — really doesn't know what he's talking about. But maybe you could ask his son-in-law, who is a slumlord there, if he wants to talk about rodent infestations."
Having been born and raised in Baltimore, Pelosi no doubt took particular umbrage with the POUTS' remarks And her takedown of Kushner was given further weight when the Associated Press reported that one of his apartment blocks in the city had a major mice problem. And the irony of Trump's tweets wasn't lost on the affected tenants either. Dezmond James said, "His son-in-law owns all of this — then he can fix it. I'm pretty sure he has a lot of money. That's kind of weird that you want to talk trash ... If you want to make improvements, you can make improvements."
Michael Rapaport slammed Jared Kushner's silence over white nationalism
One of the most outspoken stars in Hollywood, podcast host Michael Rapaport was, at times, relatively reserved when the subject of Jared Kushner came up during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2017. The star of Netflix dramedy Atypical even told the host that he wanted to "sit down and have a bagel, cream cheese, and lox" with the controversial White House advisor.
However, Rapaport certainly wasn't interested in engaging in small talk during this proposed sit-down. Indeed, the Justified actor wanted to meet Kushner, a fellow Jewish man, to grill him about his deafening silence over the rise of white nationalism since Donald Trump took office. "What is he doing?" Rapaport asked Colbert rhetorically. "He's the special adviser to the president? What kind of advice is he giving him?"
"I can't believe he can look himself in the mirror before Shabbat dinner and not say anything when they're saying 'heil my father-in-law,'" Rapaport continued, additionally calling Kushner "a joke." The proud New Yorker also found the time to throw in another joke about Kushner's lack of condemnation toward the neo-Nazi movement: "His rabbi tweeted that he wants his bar mitzva paperwork back. They don't want any association with him anymore."