Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump who drafted the administration’s new Middle East peace plan, defended his credentials on Wednesday by noting that he read more than two dozen books on the topic, HuffPost reports.
“I’ve been studying this now for three years,” the bookworm said. “I’ve read 25 books on it, I’ve spoken to every leader in the region, I’ve spoken to everyone who’s been involved in this.”
Critics of Kushner were, predictably, unimpressed by his boast. In the Washington Post, columnist Alexandra Petri wrote an op-ed titled “I have just read 25 books and am here to perform your open-heart surgery.”
“In case you might worry that I am not qualified to perform this surgery: I read 25 books,” she wrote. “So you are in good hands. No, I have not done this before, but in a way, that makes me actually more competent. When I look at you, I don’t see all the problems people saw before: an aorta, and ventricles, and the little tube thing that pokes out. I just see solutions.”
Kushner’s claim was also met with skepticism on Twitter.
“Kushner hasn't read 25 books on any subject,” wrote Jack Brown. “The mere act of him making such a claim tells us that Kushner feels he’s unqualified to be in his position. It's akin to a 16-year old who wants the car on Friday night—reciting all of his chores to his mother.”
And Tabatha Southey tweeted, “If only someone had thought of this before! I mean, other people read 23 books, some people read 24 books. I heard of one guy who read 26 book[s]. But only Jared Kushner had the vision to read *25 books.*”
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.