Will Jared And Ivanka Be Survivors Of Rumored Sweeping Trump Purge?

Image by Digital Colorization by Ben Park; By Justin Lane/EPA/Rex/shutterstock

By Nathan Guttman May 15, 2017

President Trump is “running around screaming at television sets, he’s increasingly isolated, basically wanting to fire everybody.” Or at least this is the description that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough provided his viewers Monday morning, based on sources in Trump’s inner-circle.

According to the popular cable news anchor, Trump’s outrage stops when it gets to his family.

“Everyone but Kushner,” according to Scarborough. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Ivanka Trump the first daughter, still enjoy the president’s trust and could be the last advisers standing if the president goes ahead with a major purge in his White House.

Reports about a possible shakeup have been circulating since late last week, after Trump came under a barrage of criticism for firing FBI director James Comey. White House sources said shakeup could be as narrow as replacing press secretary Sean Spicer, or as broad as doing away with the entire class of top advisers, including Steve Bannon and chief of staff Reince Priebus.

The key, according to the reports, will be loyalty to the president, and under that criteria, Kushner and Ivanka’s jobs are safe.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO