Jared Kushner: Trump ‘Ran Into the Challenge’ of the Coronavirus Pandemic

While President Trump faces mounting criticism for repeatedly saying the coronavirus pandemic will simply “go away,” his son-in-law offered a glowing assessment of his handling of the crisis on Wednesday night. In an interview with Fox News, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner claimed Trump “didn’t run from” the difficulties posed by the pandemic, but instead he “ran into the challenge.” “We took all those challenges on and we were able to meet them and make sure people’s worst fears didn’t come to pass,” he said. He went on to describe Trump as someone who “tends to take his problems head-on.” The comments may come as a surprise to anyone who recalls the president declaring, “I don’t take responsibility at all” back in March when pressed on the lack of widespread COVID-19 testing at the time. Kushner’s praise also comes one week after the publication of Bob Woodward's Rage, which revealed that Trump knew about the dangers of the coronavirus early on in the pandemic but deliberately downplayed the severity of it. “This is deadly stuff,” Trump told Woodward in early February.