Jared Kushner was diagnosed with thyroid cancer while serving in the West Wing, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump reveals in his forthcoming memoir.
White House physician Sean Conley conveyed the diagnosis while Mr. Kushner, a senior White House adviser, was aboard Air Force One in October 2019.
“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,” Mr. Kushner writes in “Breaking History: A White House Memoir.”
“’Your test results came back from Walter Reed. It looks like you have cancer. We need to schedule a surgery right away,’” he writes.
Excerpts of the book, which is slated to be published next month, were first published by The New York Times.
Mr. Kushner, who at the time was engaged in discussions over a trade deal with China, asked that Dr. Conley keep the diagnosis confidential until he was able to speak with him in his office the next day.
“Please don’t tell anyone — especially my wife or my father-in-law,” he told Dr. Conley, according to his memoir.
Mr. Kushner eventually scheduled his surgery to remove a “substantial” portion of his thyroid for the Friday before Thanksgiving in order to “miss the least amount of time in the office,” he writes.
“My absence might even go unnoticed,” he writes. “That’s how I wanted it.”
He said he kept the diagnosis close to the vest, only telling his wife, Ivanka Trump, and a small circle of aides and White House officials.
He also managed to keep the diagnosis and surgery out of the press, but he writes that Mr. Trump eventually received word before he went under the knife.
“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,” Mr. Kushner writes.
“How do you know about it?” Mr. Kushner asked.
“I’m the president,” Mr. Trump said, Mr. Kushner writes. “I know everything. 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.”
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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