Former President Donald Trump’s second chief of staff, John Kelly, “shoved” Ivanka Trump in a fit of “rage” following a heated Oval Office meeting, Jared Kushner claims in his forthcoming White House memoir.
The 45th president’s son-in-law and top adviser alleges that Kelly — a former Marine Corps general who served as White House chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019 — was a bullying figure who had a “Jekyll-and-Hyde” demeanor during his days at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, according to excerpts of the book obtained by the Washington Post.
“One day he had just marched out of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office,” recalls Kushner, 41. “Ivanka was walking down the main hallway of the West Wing when she passed him. Unaware of his heated state of mind, she said, ‘Hello, chief.’”
But Kelly reportedly wasn’t in the mood to chat.
“Kelly shoved her out of the way and stormed by,” Kushner’s account continued. “She wasn’t hurt, and didn’t make a big deal about the altercation, but in his rage Kelly had shown his true character.”
About an hour after the incident, the first son-in-law claimed, Kelly went to Ivanka’s second-floor West Wing office to offer a “meek apology,” which was accepted.
Kelly, 72, said he didn’t “recall” the episode as Kushner described it in his memoir.
“It is inconceivable that I would EVER shove a woman,” Kelly wrote in an email to the newspaper. “Inconceivable. Never happen. Would never intentionally do something like that. Also, don’t remember ever apologizing to her for something I didn’t do. I’d remember that.”
Ivanka Trump, through a spokesperson, told the Washington Post that her husband’s account of the incident was accurate.
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