Tag: Jared Kushner

Are Ivanka And Jared Kushner Defying Trump?

The following article by Greg Price with Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website December 14, 2017:

The president’s “favorite” kid might be becoming his problem child.

Ivanka Trump has been defying the stances of her father, President Donald Trump, repeatedly in the past few months, raising questions about whether the child the commander-in-chief once singled out as his favored Trump is now brewing a resistance of her own. And her husband, Jared Kushner, has apparently gotten on Trump’s bad side once again recently, following months of controversies tying him to the Trump-Russia investigations.

Ivanka broke with her father on supporting Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore after the Republican contender faced sexual misconduct accusations from nine women. “There’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children,” Ivanka told the Associated Press after Moore’s accusations were reported. “I’ve yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.” Doug Jones, the Democrat who ended up beating Moore on Tuesday, used part of that quote in a campaign ad. Continue reading “Are Ivanka And Jared Kushner Defying Trump?”

Kushner bets he can have it both ways on Jerusalem move

The following article by Annie Karni was posted on the Politico website December 6, 2017:

The presidential son-in-law, whose influence has waned since John Kelly arrived, believes recognizing the Israeli capital won’t threaten his peace deal.

President Donald Trump and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on May 22. Credit: Kobi Gideon/GPO via Getty Images

Jared Kushner is betting the house on a risky strategy that Middle East experts worry will derail any future Israeli-Palestinian peace deal — as well as what remains of the powerful son-in-law’s shrinking West Wing portfolio.

He privately encouraged President Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday that “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital,” which was seen by some experts in the region as a setback for peace efforts led by Kushner and his small team. The group has made dozens of trips to the region and spent hours on listening tours, working to gain the trust of the Palestinians and the broader Arab world.

“It is very, very hard to imagine how that peace effort can be continued,” said Ghaith al-Omari, who served as an adviser to the Palestinian Authority’s negotiating team from 1999 to 2002. “All the Arab leaders who have been cultivating relations with the new administration will be forced to come out very strongly against this.” Continue reading “Kushner bets he can have it both ways on Jerusalem move”

How Trump Will Blow Up Kushner’s Peace Deal

The following article by Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer was posted on the National Memo website December 6, 2017:

Credit: SUSAN WALSH/AP

What on earth is Trump thinking?

That’s a question one asks all too often about the president. But the contradiction between President Donald Trump’s expected announcement that he will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — at the very same time his son-in-law is trying to concoct the “ultimate” deal between Israelis and Palestinians — is downright schizoid.

On the one hand, First Son-in-law Jared Kushner, paired with Trump’s real estate lawyer Jason Greenblatt, have been traversing the Mideast for the last several months trying to come up with a peace plan whose details still remain a secret. But the plan will reportedly emerge early in the new year. Continue reading “How Trump Will Blow Up Kushner’s Peace Deal”

Jared Kushner Can’t Pass His Security Clearance Probe

The following article by Chris Riotta with Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website December 2, 2017:

Jared Kushner is a security risk embedded in the West Wing since he still hasn’t passed a comprehensive background investigation required of anyone seeking a permanent security clearance—and no one will question the president’s decision to put his son-in-law in a crucial government role, experts and officials told Newsweek.

President Donald Trump’s senior adviser has been working under an interim security clearance nearly a year into the administration, as investigators continue to assess his trustworthiness and analyze his web of active foreign investments, according to two sources with knowledge of the status on Kushner’s clearance. His permanent security clearance was stalled because he initially omitted 100 foreign contacts before revising his forms three times. Kushner’s complicated business interests are also being considered after he repeatedly revised financial disclosure forms, but experts said the sheer volume of his ongoing ties to foreign investors are enough to deny anyone access to classified information. Continue reading “Jared Kushner Can’t Pass His Security Clearance Probe”

White House Chief Of Staff Discussed Departure Of Ivanka And Jared

The following article by Chris Riotta with Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website November 25, 2017:

Donald Trump’s White House may no longer be a family-run business in the years ahead, if Chief of Staff John Kelly’s conversations with the president’s advisers reflect a possible foreshadowing of departures among the first family.

The former secretary of national security—now tasked with heading Trump’s day-to-day operations in the West Wing—has discussed the possibility of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump bowing out of the administration by 2018, the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, Peter Baker and Sharon LaFraniere reported Saturday. The developments follow similar reports indicating Trump himself has questioned whether the first daughter and her husband should remain in the White House amid negative press surrounding their involvement in his administration. Continue reading “White House Chief Of Staff Discussed Departure Of Ivanka And Jared”

Trump Wants Ivanka and Jared Kushner to Return to New York: Report

The following article by Chris Sosa was posted on the AlterNet website November 21, 2017:

The president appears to have lost faith in his son-in-law’s political advice.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has not been impressed by the amateur efforts of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. He’s increasingly reduced Kushner’s power in the West Wing and recently expressed displeasure behind the scenes about Kushner’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia.

In a surprising shift, Trump himself is now getting sick of the Kushner sideshow. The president suggested that Kushner and Ivanka Trump go home to New York City, according to Vanity Fair. Trump is concerned about the political media coverage of the couple.

Trump is also said to resent Kushner’s advice to back losing Republican Alabama Senate primary candidate Luther Strange, along with the advice to fire FBI director James Comey.

“He keeps pressuring them to go,” a source close to Kushner told Vanity Fair.

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“Kelly Has Clipped His Wings”: Jared Kushner’s Horizons are Collapsing Within the West Wing

The following article by Gabriel Sherman was posted on the Vanity Fair website November 21, 2017:

The West Wing princeling’s portfolio had been shrunk largely to the Middle East—but then his Saudi Arabia trip caused problems for the chief of staff.

Kushner and Kelly walk along the South Lawn on August 3, 2017. Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

When Donald Trump appointed John Kelly as chief of staff in July, the four-star Marine general arrived with a mandate to bring order to a freewheeling West Wing. Gone are the days of staffers waltzing into the Oval Office to lobby the president on policy or supply him with gossip. Trump still tweets, of course, but for the most part Kelly’s cleanup has been successful, according to interviews with a half dozen Trump advisers, current and former West Wing officials, and Republicans close to the administration. The aide who has ceded the most influence in the Kelly era, these people said, is Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. “Kelly has clipped his wings,” one high-level Republican in frequent contact with the White House told me. Continue reading ““Kelly Has Clipped His Wings”: Jared Kushner’s Horizons are Collapsing Within the West Wing”

Trump and WikiLeaks: Five things to know

The following article by Morgan Chalfant was posted on the Hill website November 18, 2017:

© Getty Images

The revelation this week that Donald Trump Jr. corresponded with WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign has added a new wrinkle to the competing probes into Russian interference.

Legal experts say the development is likely to intensify scrutiny of Trump’s eldest son, who is already under the microscope for a controversial June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer.

Separately, a pair of senators revealed Thursday that Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had received correspondence about WikiLeaks prior to the election. They said Kushner has not yet turned over those documents to congressional investigators. Continue reading “Trump and WikiLeaks: Five things to know”

Kushner told Congress he did not recall campaign contact with WikiLeaks: report

The following article by Max Greenwood was posted on the Hill website November 17, 2017:

Credit: Reynold/Epa-Efe/Rex/Shutterstock

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner told congressional investigators in July that he was not aware of any communications between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, according to a CNN report on Friday.

That testimony appears to contradict a letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee this week disclosing that Kushner had received an email in 2016 from Donald Trump Jr. about contact the president’s eldest son had with the anti-secrecy website.

According to CNN, a source familiar with Kushner’s testimony in July said he answered lawmakers’ questions accurately and did not recall whether anyone else on the campaign was in contact with WikiLeaks. Continue reading “Kushner told Congress he did not recall campaign contact with WikiLeaks: report”

Top Russian Official Tried to Broker ‘Backdoor’ Meeting Between Trump and Putin

The following article by Matt Apuzzo, Matthew Rosenberg and Adam Goldman was posted on the New York Times website November 17, 2017:

Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank, at a round table in Moscow in September 2016. Credit Alexander Shalgin/TASS, via Getty Images

WASHINGTON — A senior Russian official who claimed to be acting at the behest of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia tried in May 2016 to arrange a meeting between Mr. Putin and Donald J. Trump, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The news of this reached the Trump campaign in a very circuitous way. An advocate for Christian causes emailed campaign aides saying that Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime, had proposed a meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump. The subject line of the email, turned over to Senate investigators, read, “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” according to one person who has seen the message. Continue reading “Top Russian Official Tried to Broker ‘Backdoor’ Meeting Between Trump and Putin”