President Trump complained to Gavin Newsom that his daughter Ivanka turned down the chance to be wooed by Tom Brady in favor of Jared Kushner — relaying the tale in front of Kushner himself, according to the Golden State governor’s new memoir.
Newsom, a potential 2028 White House contender, writes in “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery,” that Trump told him aboard the presidential helicopter, Marine One, that “when Brady was single, the two of them were at a function and Brady expressed an interest in dating his daughter Ivanka.”
“The quarterback asked for her number, and Trump gave it to him,” Newsom continued. “Brady called Ivanka and left a message, but she never called him back. Soon after, Brady related the snub to Trump, who then called his daughter.”
“I said, ‘Jesus, you know, Tom Brady. What the hell is going on? Why aren’t you calling this guy back?’ And she tells me, ‘Oh, I’m in love.’ ‘What do you mean you’re in love?’ And that’s when she mentions, this guy.” Trump said, gesturing to his son-in-law, according to Newsom.
‘”This guy right here. This Kushner guy. I said to Ivanka, ‘Not the guy whose father just got out of prison?’”
Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, served two years in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to 18 criminal counts, including tax evasion, witness retaliation, and making false campaign contributions.
Trump pardoned the elder Kushner at the end of his first term and appointed him ambassador to France in his second term.
As Newsom recalls, Kushner admitted after a period of “dead air”: “Yes, sir. I know I wasn’t your first choice.’”
“And then Trump turned to me and said, “Not even close, right, Gavin? Tom Brady. Tom Brady,” Newsom wrote.
The California governor, who’s considering a 2028 presidential campaign, wrote of his reaction to the situation: “Trump was making his son-in-law feel two feet tall. ‘And Kushner just let him do it.”
Jared and Ivanka started dating in 2005 after being introduced by mutual friends. They married in October 2009 at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Ivanka converted to Judaism for the marriage.
The couple has three children: daughter Arabella Rose, 14, and sons Joseph Frederick, 12, and Theodore James, nine.
Trump long tried to get his eldest daughter to date the football star. He told Howard Stern in 2004 that Ivanka and Brady would make a “power dynasty.”
But Brady downplayed rumors of romance. He told Stern in 2020 that he and Ivanka never dated.
“That was a long time ago in my life. … No, there was never that, where we ever dated or anything like that,” he said.
