Jared Kushner Trends After Trump's Son-in-Law Speaks at the White House Coronavirus Task Force Briefing

Senior adviser to President Donald Trump Jared Kushner spoke at Thursday's coronavirus task force briefing, much to the confusion of some social media users who weren't sure why Kushner was there. Kushner is President Trump's son-in-law.

"Jared Kushner running a global pandemic response is the best argument imaginable for strong anti-nepotism laws," tweeted Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor.

"Donald Trump is the only person on this planet who, at a time of historic global crisis, would say, 'Put Jared Kushner on it,' wrote Westworld actor Jeffrey Wright. "That's why we're in the position we're in today."

Former NBA player Rex Chapman tweeted, "Watching Jared Kushner is like watching Doogie Howser but if like Doogie was just a regular teenager and not a child prodigy but he still performed surgeries."

Some Twitter users, including co-host of the ABC morning program The View, Sunny Hostin, questioned why Kushner was on the task force when he had no medical training.

"Why is Jared Kushner, someone with absolutely no medical background, speaking about a global pandemic and opining about managerial competence?!!! He couldn't even pass a security clearance. Is this a joke????" Hostin tweeted.

Conservative author Michelle Malkin tweeted, "America is finally united: NOBODY likes Jared Kushner. NOBODY wants him in charge. NOBODY."

While some observers have claimed that Kushner is running a "shadow task force" within the White House, Kushner said Thursday that those comments were unwarranted.

"The president asked the vice president to run the task force," Kushner explained. "The vice president asked me to assist. I've been serving at the direction of the vice president. He's asked me to get involved with certain projects."

Kushner said people who perpetuated the idea of the existence of a shadow task force were "probably not informed as to what's going on."

Trump interjected, insinuating that the information came from "fake sources."

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.

In his remarks, Kushner addressed the current ventilator shortage in the U.S. by saying some state governments were unaware of the situation within their own states.

"The states should know how many ventilators are in their states and by the way, some governors you speak to, or senators, they don't know what's in their state," Kushner said. "Some governors I'll speak to and they'll know to the number how many ventilators they have in their state because that's the first thing a good manager will do."

"Don't ask us for things when you don't know what you have in your own state," Kushner added.

Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint against Kushner Thursday with the Office of U.S. Special Counsel for working on Trump's reelection campaign during regular business hours while in the employ of the White House.

"Given the track record for officials in this administration illegally using their official positions for politics at unprecedented rates, it is unsurprising that Jared Kushner has found himself in this situation," said CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder in a news release Thursday. "However, the law applies to everyone, even the son-in-law of the president."