Donald Trump Backed Failed Coup to Remove Jared Kushner: Navarro

Former President Donald Trump attempted a failed “coup d’état” to remove his son-in-law Jared Kushner from control of his 2020 presidential campaign, according to former White House economics adviser Peter Navarro.

Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner (R) join U.S. President Donald Trump as he holds a press conference to discuss a revised U.S. trade agreement with Mexico and Canada in the Rose Garden of the White House on October 1, 2018 in Washington, DC. A new book claims Trump wanted to fire Kushner from his role in his 2020 presidential campaign.

Navarro makes the claim in his new book Taking Back Trump’s America: Why We Lost the White House and How We’ll Win It Back, which will be published later this month.

The Guardian, which obtained a copy of the book, reported on Saturday that Navarro recounts an attempt to fire Kushner from the campaign that also involved Home Depot co-founder and Republican donor Bernie Marcus.

Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and Marcus supported replacing Kushner with Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser who had been a major figure in Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Trump met Marcus at the White House in a meeting Navarro claims he arranged and “readily agreed with Bernie that Jared had to be replaced with Steve.” Campaign manager Brad Parscale was also to be replaced.

However, the former president was reportedly unwilling to confront Kushner in person and instead deputized Marcus, whose attempt to fire Kushner failed.

“Rather than being shot himself,” Navarro writes in his book, Trump “asked Bernie to be the messenger” and the Home Depot co-founder “accepted the mission, albeit grudgingly.”

Marcus’ mission was unsuccessful and Navarro writes that Kushner skipped a call with him and then told Marcus “things were fine with the campaign, there was no way he was stepping down and, in effect, Bernie Marcus and his big moneybags could go pound sand.”

Parscale left his role as campaign manager in July, 2020 but Kushner remained in overall charge.

Navarro claims that Kushner took a dim view of Bannon and believed he had taken too much credit for Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign. The former president’s son-in-law told Navarro he wanted to “crush Bannon like a bug,” the book claims.

Newsweek has asked former President Trump’s office for comment.

Bannon was convicted in July of contempt of Congress over his refusal to co-operate with a congressional subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the events of January 6.

He has also been charged with fraud, money laundering and conspiracy over accusations that he cheated donors as part of a campaign to fund the construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Bannon has claimed he’s being persecuted but surrendered to authorities in New York on Thursday.

“This is what happens in the last days of a dying regime,” a handcuffed Bannon told reporters. “They’ll never shut me up. They’ll have to kill me first.

Separately, Navarro is due to stand trial in November on a charge of contempt of Congress. Like Bannon, he has refused to cooperate with the January 6 committee. He pleaded not guilty in June.

Per: Newsweek