When Gary D. Cohn was considering resigning as the top White House economic adviser after President Donald Trump blamed “both sides” in a deadly white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, his first stop was a meeting with Mr Trump’s children.
In a conversation in August 2017 with Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and senior adviser, Mr Cohn was shocked by her reaction to his concerns, according to a new book about Ms Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.
“My dad’s not a racist; he didn’t mean any of it,” Ivanka Trump said of the president’s refusal to condemn white nationalists outright. Appearing to channel her father, she added, “That’s not what he said.”
Mr Cohn, who did not respond to a request for comment, ultimately did not resign over the Charlottesville episode, instead leaving after losing a battle over trade policy last year. But the incident permanently changed his view of Ivanka Trump and Mr Kushner, who are often painted as moderating influences on the president, according to Kushner Inc., by journalist Vicky Ward.
The book, which will be published by St. Martin’s Press on 19 March, seeks to tell the behind-the-scenes story of Ivanka Trump and Mr Kushner’s rise to extraordinary power in the White House. Ms Ward has said she spent two years interviewing 220 people for the book, granting many of them anonymity.