Former president Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly suggested having a "healing church service" led by Kanye West to ease tensions after the killing of George Floyd, a new book claims.
The New York Times' Maggie Haberman details the strange suggestion in her book "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America."
The exchange happened in the weeks after Mr Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
According to Ms Haberman, Mr Trump's aides "encouraged him to read a public statement disclosing that he had spoken with Floyd's family to express his 'horror, anger and grief.'"
She claims Mr Trump was reluctant to make any statement that appeared sympathetic to Mr Floyd as the former president considered him "a crook."
Mr Trump and his aides eventually reached a compromise — he would call the death a "grave tragedy" while still condemning the racial justice protests that dominated cities across the US in the summer of 2020.
He made the comments during an appearance at the Kennedy Space Centre, but became irate when the media failed to fawn over her message.
"They're all still saying I didn't say something," Mr Trump is quoted as saying. "I said it, I'm not saying it again."
With Mr Trump refusing to engage further and tensions between the public and the police well beyond strained, White House aides looked for other ways to show the commander-in-chief was paying attention.
One idea, reportedly pitched by Mr Kushner, involved a Kanye West — now going simply by Ye — church service.
"Jared Kushner floated having Kanye West lead a healing church service on the South Lawn," Ms Haberman writes. "[White House Chief os Staff Mark] Meadows retorted that Trump's own supporters did not like the rapper. So nothing happened."
West was a vocal supporter of Mr Trump during his time in office. Though it is sometimes difficult to track West's ideological beliefs due to their seemingly constant state of flux, he has repeatedly landed back in the former president's corner, even telling Fox News' Tucker Carlson that he was "bullied" in Hollywood for supporting Mr Trump.
West recently rankled liberals when he appeared with right-wing provocateur Candace Owens wearing "White Lives Matter" shirts. Both West and Ms Owens are Black.
The rapper was also recently locked out of his newly re-instated Twitter account after he threatened to go "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE." The tweet has since been deleted by Twitter moderators.
Though West and Mr Kushner may have had a positive relationship in the past, a now-deleted Instagram post written by the rapper suggests that is no longer the case.
West wrote “F*** JARED KUSHNER” on his Instagram page, adding that he was “HOLDING BACK TRUMP.”
The rapper was more complimentary to Mr Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, saying she was “FIRE.”
