Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jared and Ivanka behind Trump’s controversial Bible photo-op, new book claims

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump advised former President Donald Trump to hold up a Bible in a photo-op outside a church that was damaged by a fire during the nationwide racial justice protests last year, against the advice of his close aides and allies, a new book claims.

“Holding the Bible in the air like a trophy was politicizing the holy book and would be received like a slap in the face to many mainstream evangelicals,” Michael Bender, a Wall Street Journal reporter, writes in his book, titled ’Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost. “Jared and Ivanka were practicing Jews from New York who kept kosher and observed the Sabbath. They weren’t immersed in evangelical culture.”

Kushner also boasted about his relationship with U.S. evangelicals by praising a controversial pastor who is considered a heretic by some Christian leaders, Bender’s book claims.

“A Jew growing up in Manhattan, I never thought I would meet and be such great friends with so many evangelicals,” Kushner once told White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Kushner mentioned Paula White, a Florida televangelist who was brought into the Trump administration to help shore up support among evangelicals, calling her “incredible.”

“Whoa,” Meadows reportedly responded. “Never tell any mainstream evangelical that Paula White is your gold standard.”

Bender’s book made headlines last week when an excerpt contained a quote of Trump reportedly saying that, “Hitler did a lot of good things.”

Subscribe to our free morning briefing newsletter for the latest Jewish news to start your day.

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.

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

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.