When it comes to ambushing Donald Trump’s confidants, far-right radio host Stew Peters is no stranger to the act.
During an interview on his nightly show Friday evening, the shock jock pressed Trump attorney Christina Bobb about the former president pushing the vaccine, as well as his relationship with son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“What about the swamp that’s right around him,” Peters asked Bobb. “Is he going to bring Jared Kushner back?”
ADVERTISEMENT
The Trump lawyer—who has found herself under the microscope of the Department of Justice—seemed surprised by the question.
“Oh gosh, I don’t know. They are family,” she said.
“It’s one thing to separate yourself from bad employees; it’s another for family,” she added. Then the Trump lawyer attempted to backtrack: “I am certainly not trying to say anything good or bad about Jared. I don’t know him personally.”
As for Peters, he later told The Daily Beast that he understood Bobb’s response to mean that she “is fully aware that Jared Kushner infiltrated the Trump White House like a member of the Mossad.”
But that didn’t sit well with Bobb. She told The Daily Beast that such a conclusion from Peters was wrong.
“I’m not sure where Mr. Peters is getting his information from, but it certainly didn’t come from my interview,” she said.
This is the latest example of the far right becoming increasingly agitated with Trump’s son-in-law—who was last seen at Trump’s 2024 campaign announcement— over his perceived involvement when it comes to pulling strings in Trumpworld. Kushner, who has drawn some arrows from the far right over his Jewish faith, has long had detractors within Trump’s inner orbit stemming from the criticism that he is close to the controversial former president when it benefits him financially.
As to how Kushner has cushioned his bottom line, his critics point to a slew of documented examples.
After his time in the White House, Kushner’s private equity firm received a $2 billion investment from a fund “led by the Saudi crown prince,” according to The New York Times. Kushner also took a “shadow” meeting during his White House days—where he met with both leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. And finally, Kushner was bailed out of a New York City high-rise building investment gone sour by a firm backed by Qatari officials.
As for Kushner’s exact relationship with Trump, it’s a bit of a question mark these days.
According to two Trump sources, Kushner doesn’t have a formal role in the Trump 2024 campaign, but he still keeps in touch with his father-in-law from time to time. While it’s unclear what they discuss, Trump hyped the release of Kushner’s recent book, despite another book claiming the duo got into “screaming matches” over Trump’s bolstering baseless claims of voter fraud after the 2020 election.
One thing that is clear: Kushner and Trump’s relationship has had ups and downs. The New York Post reported in mid-November that Trump begged both Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, to join his 2024 political operation to no avail.
That all comes as Trump reportedly has taken issue with his son-in-law making out well financially in his post-White House era.
According to one of the sources that have spoken with Trump about the matter, the former president occasionally mentions how Kushner—who they said is a “combo of Miami neophyte” and “Middle East nepotism”—made “billions” from government officials in Saudi Arabia.
The Trump source added that Kushner is the very “best” example of someone in Trump’s inner circle that benefits from their connection to the former president while at the same time “distancing himself from Trump.”
A longtime Kushner aide didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment, while Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said “relying on anonymous sources and background quotes is a surefire way to write untrue stories.” (Cheung didn’t offer any on-the-record commentary about Trump and Kushner’s relationship.)
But the bonkers interview spearheaded by oddly specific questions from Peters didn’t end there. The far-right radio host dove into another Trumpworld controversy that has long been a weak spot targeted by extremists: Trump’s continued support for the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Do you think that Trump could be polling better—do you think that people would support him more if he would come out against these shots that are showing so many people to die?” Peters asked Bobb, which the lawyer—yet again—appeared to be caught off guard by.
“That is a really interesting question. Possibly,” she responded. “That is a frequent question that I get from people as far as, ‘Where is Donald Trump on the vaccine?’”
Peters then interjected—taking a swing at Trump—over the former president’s administration’s efforts in pushing Americans to get their COVID-19 vaccine in the early days of the pandemic. “I can’t imagine that he doesn’t have the information we do,” the radio host fumed. “I just can’t understand his continuous support for this bio-weapon injection.”
(There is no evidence of any systemic or significant health risk associated with the vaccine, and the vaccine is generally credited with saving 3.2 million lives and preventing 18.5 million hospitalizations in the United States alone, according to a recent study by The Commonwealth Fund.)
Despite Peters’ shaky claims, the Trump lawyer—who originally set out to promote her new book during the Peters interview—grew flustered from his adversarial questions.
“I can’t speak for him on that,” she said of the vaccines, before stating that Trump would support whatever message gains traction within the MAGA base.