Trump Shrugged At Ivanka’s Conversion: ‘She’s A Big Girl’
It’s not all traditional politics in Chris Christie’s forthcoming book, “Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics” — the former New Jersey governor also reveals a conversation he had with President Trump over his daughter Ivanka’s conversion to Judaism.
In the book, due out January 29, Christie includes a conversation from a dinner he had with Trump and the First Lady in 2009, in which the president shared with him the news that Ivanka was going to convert and marry Jared Kushner, a modern Orthodox Jew, according to Jewish Insider, which received an advanced copy.
“It was a little hard to gauge Donald’s reaction” to Ivanka’s decision, Christie wrote. “He was greeting the news with what I would describe as acceptance. ‘She’s a big girl. She’s a smart girl. If that’s what she wants to do, then that’s what she wants to do. I support her. I trust her.’”
Trump seemed on board, according to Christie: “You never know what your kids will do next.”
Christie also said he decided against attending the wedding, wanting to avoid any tension with Kushner’s father, real estate magnate Charles Kushner. Christie prosecuted him for tax evasion in 2005, when he was a federal attorney.
“I am confident that [Trump] was relieved that we didn’t make things awkward for him, Ivanka, and his son-in-law-to-be,” Christie wrote.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
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.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO