In October, supermodel Karlie Kloss posted a happy Instagram photo of herself in a Dior wedding gown. She was with her new husband, Josh Kushner, the venture capitalist brother of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and the heir to the controversial Kushner family real estate empire.
The photo announced that the couple had married after six years of dating. Kloss’ new sister-in-law, Ivanka Trump — perhaps looking for a self-promotional opportunity — grabbed some attention by tweeting out their announcement, “So much love for you both as you begin this journey together.”
So much love for you both as you begin forever together. ❤️ https://t.co/8lYSGrKpVu
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 19, 2018
People magazine, quoting someone who attended the small Jewish ceremony in upstate New York, described it as “intimate and moving.” The friend said, “The couple was beaming with happiness.”
But it turns out that this happiness was long-fought and opposed by Josh Kushner’s family — notably by his domineering parents, Charles and Seryl, and older brother Jared.
That’s according to the new book, “Kushner Inc.” In the book, subtitled: “Greed. Ambition. Corruption,” author Vicky Ward describes Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump as lying, scamming and backstabbing their way to power in Trump’s White House. The goal of the couple, Ward wrote, is to transform themselves into “the self-styled prince and princess of America.”
But to give context to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s drive for power, the book also offers up details about the dynamics of the dysfunctional but tight-knit Kushner family. Certain bystanders, including Kloss, find their roles in the family being examined.
Kloss, 26, is a beautiful, successful international model who has become a well-known friend of Taylor Swift and other celebrities. But Charles and Seryl Kushner refused to meet the Victoria’s Secret model for years, and Josh Kushner, 33, was not allowed to bring her to family gatherings, Ward wrote.
“For years, people told me, the whole family spoke horribly about Kloss behind her back. A family friend referred to her as the ‘lingerie model,'” Ward added.
For a long time, Jared Kushner agreed with his parents that Kloss was wrong for his brother, according to Ward.
When Josh Kushner and Kloss first began dating in 2012, Jared Kushner reportedly told Aaron Gell, then-editor of the New York Observer: “Don’t worry. The family is going to take care of that. We’re not very happy about him dating a shiksa. We’re hoping he’ll move on.”
Jared Kushner at the time owned the New York Observer. According to Ward, Gell said his boss also told him: “She’s not that smart.”
Yes, Kloss’ major flaw is that she wasn’t born Jewish, though she would later convert to please her husband and his family, according to Ward and other reports.
Trump also converted to Judaism to marry into the Kushner clan in 2009. But to Charles and Seryl Kushner, Kloss had other defects when compared to Trump.
Ivanka Trump “was a Trump,” which to the Kushners made her real estate royalty, like their sons, Ward wrote.
“And she’d attended an Ivy League school, the University of Pennsylvania,” Ward added. “Kloss grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St Louis, and hadn’t even been to college when she and Josh began dating.”
It’s not known whether Trump shared her husband’s doubts about Kloss’ suitability to become a Kushner. However, she publicly supported the match when Josh Kushner and Kloss announced their engagement on Instagram in July.
Trump posted a congratulatory comment saying she was “blessed” to have Kloss as her “sister.”
Then and now, it has been assumed that Kloss may not have been so happy to be so publicly embraced by Trump, given the controversy that surrounds her actions in the White House. Kloss and Josh Kushner have become outspoken in their support for liberal causes, including gun control, which the Trump administration opposes.
Throughout all the drama surrounding Kloss, Charles Kushner had other chips on his shoulder that may been fueling his concerns about the supermodel, according to Ward.
The son of Holocaust survivors, Kushner built a formidable real estate empire in New Jersey but was publicly disgraced in 2004 when he was convicted of 18 counts of tax evasion, making illegal campaign contributions and witness tampering. He served 14 months in a federal prison.
Consequently, he saw Jared Kushner’s rise to national political power, on the coattails of Donald Trump being elected president, as promising his own redemption. Charles Kushner embraced Trump’s presidency, even though he was a Democrat and a long-time donor to Democratic candidates.
“The Kushners, it seemed had finally got the recognition Charlie felt they had long deserved,” Ward wrote. “Maybe, thanks to the ascension of Jared and Ivanka into the White House, Charlie would then get a presidential pardon and exorcise the demons from his past.”
Charles Kushner also was happy to see his two sons in the White House pose beneath a photo of John F. Kennedy after Jared Kushner was sworn in as senior adviser to Donald Trump. “Charlie had always said the Kushners would be the Jewish Kennedys — and here they were,” Ward wrote.
But it seems there was a flaw in Charles Kushner’s plan: Josh Kushner’s relationship with Kloss. During that inaugural weekend, Charles Kushner let Josh Kushner know that Kloss had to go, Ward reported. At a party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., to celebrate Trump’s inauguration and to observe shabbat, Charles Kushner reportedly “turned nasty toward Josh, venting his dislike for Kloss,” according to Ward.
“Josh, we expect you to do the right thing,” Charles Kushner reportedly told his younger son, according to Ward. “The person you are with is not the right person.”
Josh Kushner “absorbed his father’s abuse in silence,” Ward reported. His parents’ opposition to Kloss “troubled him deeply,” Kushner family friend Alan Hammer told Ward.
For unknown reasons, Josh Kushner and Karlie Kloss broke up for a short time in 2018, but he finally decided to assert his independence from his family by deciding that the two should get married, Ward wrote.
Once Josh Kushner made it clear he was going to marry Kloss, his father and mother met with her and invited her to stay with them at their New Jersey beach home for a long weekend. “It’s a giant step forward,” Hammer told Ward.
Josh Kushner and Karlie Kloss asserted their independence some more by not seeking his parents’ input when planning their wedding, which would just be for 80 people, Ward reported.
However, the wedding apparently hasn’t alleviated the differences, with Seryl Kushner considering Josh Kushner’s marriage to Kloss as “her biggest failure,” according to Ward.
But Ward points out that Kloss — not Ivanka Trump — is the daughter-in-law who is most in line with the Kushners’ long-held aspirations, political and otherwise.
“The irony is that Charlie and Seryl have got it backward: In the liberal circles in which they travel, Koss is a far more admirable role model,” Ward wrote.
Ward cited how Kloss also is an entrepreneur and philanthropist with a long-held interest in math and science, even though she didn’t go to college. At just 22, Kloss set up what would become a nationwide program, Kode With Klossy, a summer camp for teenage girls interested in technology.
Kloss’ YouTube channel, with more than 700,000 subscribers, also posts interviews with pioneering women in STEAM. Such efforts put Kloss on the Time 100 list in 2016, honoring the year’s most influential people.
“Kloss also has made her political positions clear and acted on them,” Ward wrote, saying she had also spoken out against family separations at the border. “There was zero ambiguity in what she wrote. While Ivanka focused on social media, Kloss was authentic and passionate.”
