The son-in-law and senior adviser to former President Donald Trump reveals his medical diagnosis in his upcoming memoir.
Jared Kushner battled cancer during his time in the White House. Ivanka Trump's husband, who's also the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump and served as his senior adviser, reveals his medical diagnosis in his upcoming memoir, Breaking History: A White House Memoir, according to an excerpt obtained by The New York Times.
Kushner's thyroid cancer was discovered in October 2019, and the dad of three was made aware of the news while aboard Air Force One, he reveals in the excerpt.
"On the morning that I traveled to Texas to attend the opening of a Louis Vuitton factory, White House physician Sean Conley pulled me into the medical cabin on Air Force One," Kushner writes in his memoir, per the Times. "'Your test results came back from Walter Reed,' he said. 'It looks like you have cancer. We need to schedule a surgery right away.'"
Upon hearing the doctor's diagnosis, Kushner requested that he not tell anyone "especially my wife or my father-in-law," he recalls in his memoir. While the cancer was caught "early," the surgery required removing a "substantial part of my thyroid," Kushner writes, adding that he was warned that there could be lingering damage to his voice.
After a doctor at New York Presbyterian Hospital concluded that surgery was needed "to remove an unusual growth" in Kushner's thyroid, the operation was scheduled for the Friday before Thanksgiving, so that the former senior adviser "would miss the least amount of time in the office," he writes in the book.
"This was a personal problem and not for public consumption," he writes. "With the exception of Ivanka, Avi, Cassidy and Mulvaney, I didn’t tell anyone at the White House -- including the president," he wrote, referring to his wife, two of his aides, and Mick Mulvaney, who was the White House chief of staff at the time.
Leading up to the surgery, Kushner writes, he tried "not to think about the upcoming surgery or the unwanted growth in my body."
"When I did think about it, I reminded myself that it was in the hands of God and the doctors, and that whatever happened was out of my control," he writes. "At moments, I caught myself wondering whether I would need extensive treatment."
Despite Kushner's best efforts, his father-in-law did find out about his diagnosis and upcoming surgery.
"The day before the surgery, Trump called me into the Oval Office and motioned for his team to close the door. 'Are you nervous about the surgery?' he asked,'" Kushner writes, adding that when he asked how Trump had learned of the operation the then-president replied, "I’m the president. I know everything."
Trump, Kushner writes, went on to assure him, "I understand that you want to keep these things quiet. I like to keep things like this to myself as well. You’ll be just fine. Don’t worry about anything with work. We have everything covered here."
No further details about Kushner's surgery or his current health are shared in the excerpt. Breaking History: A White House Memoir is due out Aug. 23.
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