Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s millionaire-son-in-law, wagged his finger at the Milwaukee Bucks and other NBA players during a CNBC interview on Thursday for having the “luxury” of boycotting their game the night before in solidarity with the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
“I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially,” said Kushner, who raked in some $36 million with his wife and fellow White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, last year. “So they have that luxury, which is great.”
The White House official, heir to his father’s real estate empire, doubled down shortly afterward in a Politico interview, saying that the players “have the luxury of taking a night off from work” while “most Americans don’t have the financial luxury to do that.”
But many people didn’t find the criticism from Kushner, with a net worth estimated to be about $800 million, super compelling:
Jared Kushner is a trust fund baby who hasn’t seen a hard days work in his entire life. Most NBA players are first generation wealth who worked their ass off to have a shot at the American dream https://t.co/MUmaiodjlE
— MichaelStarr Hopkins (@Theonlyhonest) August 27, 2020
My Harvard ‘03 classmate Jared Kushner got in because his parents donated $2.5 million to Harvard. Me? I taught myself to take the SAT there was no $ for a class.
Which one of us knows something about earning our position in life, Jared? https://t.co/AnwQNTGsuo
— #JusticeforBreonna Prescod-Weinstein ??♀️ (@IBJIYONGI) August 27, 2020
Jared Kushner, who has accomplished LITERALLY NOTHING in the 4 years he's been sycophanting around in the White House, says that LeBron James, who has, since 2005, been a champion of kids, opened a school, and runs a voting rights non-profit, should be "productive".
Fuck. Off. https://t.co/5tPAB8Dhm9
— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) August 27, 2020
No one knows more about “concrete solutions that are productive” than Jared Kushner, the man who solved the opioid crisis, brought peace to the Middle East, launched a flawless federal response to the coronavirus …
I mean, we could spend all day talking about his successes! https://t.co/3NpuEe9eD3
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 27, 2020
Give Kushner credit, he certainly knows what it’s like to be so financially well off that you never have to worry about working. But unlike those in the NBA, he was born into that. https://t.co/JVGjjZm6ti
— Sam Stein (@samstein) August 27, 2020
Jared Kushner, born into wealth and married into even more wealth, who has failed at everything he’s been tasked to do and only gotten jobs because of daddy, thinks LeBron James should solve racism. https://t.co/Wljb5XFHGs
— Russ Bengtson (@russbengtson) August 27, 2020
Chris Paul worked his whole life and won a scholarship to Wake Forest University. Jared Kushner’s father bought the spalpeen’s way into Harvard. https://t.co/kxEaWtIpFZ
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) August 27, 2020
Silver Spoon Jared Kushner calling NBA players “lucky for being able to take a night off from work” is too rich.
These are grown men who have worked insanely hard to earn their jobs. Without rich parents.
Unlike Jared…pic.twitter.com/9qIyRRyNZP
— Rex Chapman?? (@RexChapman) August 27, 2020
Correction: The original draft contained a typo that erroneously stated Kushner and Ivanka Trump had made $136 million last year. The figure is $36 million.
