Talk about an awkward family dinner.
A new political memoir is stirring up serious buzz after claiming Donald Trump once tried to play matchmaker for daughter Ivanka Trump — and his dream guy wasn’t Jared Kushner. It was NFL superstar Tom Brady.
According to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s new book Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery, Trump openly admitted — in front of Kushner — that Brady had once shown interest in dating Ivanka. And the way he told the story reportedly left the room in stunned silence.
Here’s how it allegedly went down.
Newsom writes that Brady, who was single at the time and years away from marrying supermodel Gisele Bündchen, asked Trump for Ivanka’s phone number after meeting her at a social event. Trump handed it over. Brady called. He left a message.
Ivanka never called back.
When Brady later mentioned the snub, Trump supposedly called his daughter to find out what was going on.
“I said, Jesus, you know, Tom Brady. What the h— is going on? Why aren’t you calling this guy back?” Trump allegedly said, according to Newsom.
Ivanka’s response? She told her father she was in love.
That’s when things reportedly got uncomfortable.
Newsom claims Trump gestured toward Kushner and said, “What do you mean you’re in love?” before referencing Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, who previously served prison time after pleading guilty to federal charges in the early 2000s.
“It was dead air for a moment,” Newsom writes.
Kushner, described as keeping his composure, allegedly responded with a tight grin: “Yes, sir. I know I wasn’t your first choice.”
But Trump wasn’t done.
Instead of smoothing things over, Newsom claims the president doubled down, turning to him and saying, “Not even close, right, Gavin? Tom Brady. Tom Brady.”
Ouch.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner married in 2009 and have built both a family and political legacy together. Kushner later served as a senior advisor in Trump’s first administration, playing a key role in Middle East policy and other high-level initiatives.
As for Brady, he went on to marry Bündchen in 2009. The pair later divorced in 2022 after more than a decade together.
The resurfaced story is just the latest anecdote highlighting Trump’s sometimes blunt — and very public — sense of humor when it comes to family dynamics. And if Newsom’s version is accurate, it may go down as one of the more jaw-dropping father-in-law moments in recent political history.
Because nothing says family bonding quite like reminding your son-in-law that you had a Super Bowl champion in mind instead.
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