African Americans should ‘want to be successful,’ says Jared Kushner

Mr Kushner sparked ire online with comments criticising the response to George Floyd’s death

Senior Adviser Jared Kushner gives a TV interview as he returns to the White House in Washington, DC. EPA

Controversial statements from White House adviser Jared Kushner ignited a social media backlash on Monday afternoon when he said inequalities in US society were a result of African Americans not wanting to be successful.

“President Trump's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they're complaining about, but he can't want them to be successful more than that they want to be successful,” he said.

Mr Kushner, Mr Trump's son in law, found himself trending on social media on Monday afternoon after making the comments during a Fox News interview.

More than 100,000 tweets mentioned Jared Kushner in the hours after the interview.

“Jared Kushner speaks as if Black people are lazy complainers who don't want to be successful," wrote lawyer Ben Crump.

"This blatant disrespect shows he has no understanding of the Black community and its challenges that have spanned centuries. You can't "fix" these problems from this level of ego."

In the interview, Mr Kushner went on to question the credulity of those who mourned the death of George Floyd.

“You saw a lot of people who were just virtue-signalling, they’d go on Instagram and cry or they would put a slogan on their jersey or write something on a basketball court and quite frankly that was doing more to polarise the country than it was to bring people forward,” he said.

The viral video of a police officer kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck for nearly 10 minutes, resulting in his death, launched a national reckoning on racial inequality and police accountability.

The Trump administration sided with police during a summer of protests and widespread discontent, touting a law and order agenda, yet the president has repeatedly claimed that he has “done more for the Black community than any other president, other than perhaps Abraham Lincoln.”

“We will remember his casual racism,” tweeted US Democratic party representative Don Beyer.

In response to the online backlash Mr Kushner received, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said: “It’s disgusting to see internet trolls taking Senior Advisor Jared Kushner out of context as they try to distract from President Trump’s undeniable record of accomplishment for the black community.”

During last week's presidential debate, Democratic candidate Joe Biden questioned Mr Trump's record with minorities, calling him one of America's "most racist presidents" in modern history and accusing him of pouring "fuel on every racist fire".

With the election one week away, the Trump administration is looking to secure the trust of African American voters who typically do not vote for him. In 2016, he lost the African American vote by more than 80 per cent.

Mr Kushner has made similar remarks in the past when discussing Palestinians. He told NBC’s Today show that the US can’t force Palestine to make a deal because "we can't want peace more than other people want peace.”