Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton revealed in an interview with ABC News broadcast Sunday that the most powerful person in the White House was Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.
“Next to the president, who held the most power in the White House?” ABC News’ Martha Raddatz asked Bolton.
“It varied from time to time,” Bolton responded. “The sustained answer to that question . . . is Jared Kushner.” Continue reading.
White House Senior Advisor to the President for Strategic Planning, Jared Kushner, on Monday admitted there had been a problem with injustice but declared systemic racism and police brutality have been fixed – just like the Trump White House has effectively declared the coronavirus pandemic over.
Neither are over.
As America enters the third week of massive – and massively peaceful – protests, President Donald Trump has said little to support the hundreds of thousands of Americans protesting the police killing of an unarmed, handcuffed Black man who was not resisting arrest. Protestors have shined a light on the horrific violence and racism America’s police forces use against Black and Brown Americans. Continue reading.
According to Jonathan Swan, Jared Kushner has taken on yet another task: “a radical overhaul of the Republican platform.” Apparently Kushner wants to reduce it from 58 pages down to a single card that people can fit into their pockets. Rather than a document outlining policy statements, he wants it to be more of a mission statement that “looks something like the 10 principles we believe in.”
Kushner’s efforts are the perfect example of how the entire GOP is about to complete its journey toward being the post-policy party. What the president’s son-in-law wants to accomplish is to turn the Republican Party platform into a public relations document rather than a policy statement. That aligns perfectly with what I reported recently about the Trump campaign website, which contains no issue statements or policy proposals, but is simply dedicated to selling campaign merchandise and raising money from contributions.
The pathway to becoming the post-policy party didn’t begin with Donald Trump. The process started back in the 1970s when Richard Nixon revived the party by adding southern Dixicrats to the base via the Southern Strategy. Then, in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Paul Weyrich brought Christian nationalists into the fold, primarily by exploiting the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court ruling. That allowed the GOP to use grievance politics (i.e. “cultural issues”) to keep their base in line while continuing their policy agenda of shrinking the federal government, lowering taxes, gutting regulations, and implementing military adventurism abroad. Continue reading.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the policy Donald Trump is fixated on has nothing to do with ramping up testing, getting protective equipment to workers, or sending resources to nursing homes where tens of thousands of seniors are dying of COVID-19. Instead, he’s obsessed with cutting payroll taxes, Social Security’s dedicated revenue.
Now, Trump’s economic advisers and his unqualified son-in-law Jared Kushner have another way to undermine Social Security: The so-called “Eagle Plan,” which would be more aptly named the Work ‘Til You Die Plan. It would give people $10,000, but only if they agreed to sign away a portion of their future Social Security benefits. This plan asks desperate families, terrified of going without food or being thrown out of their homes, to sacrifice their retirement.
Plans like this one betray a willful refusal to understand the nature of Social Security, which is insurance, not a piggy bank. It replaces wages lost when a worker retires, becomes disabled, or dies leaving dependents. Workers earn these benefits with every paycheck. Continue reading.
The decision to delay an election is not up to Kushner, nor the White House.Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, said he is not ruling out the possibility that the November general election could be postponed due to the coronavirus.
“I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other, but right now that’s the plan,” Kushner said in an interview with Time published Tuesday night.
Kushner’s comments confirmed fears from Democrats that Trump may try to unilaterally move the election if he fears he may lose. Continue reading.
The same day that the nation’s top infectious-disease expert warned that reopening the economy too quickly could bring serious consequences, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner acknowledged that there is inherent “risk” in President Trump pushing Americans to get back to work.
Speaking to TIME’s senior White House correspondent Brian Bennett as part of the TIME100 Talks series on Tuesday, Kushner said “there’s risk in anything, but the President carries the burden of the 30 million Americans who have lost their jobs due to this historic effort to save lives.”
Asked about Dr. Anthony Fauci’s warning to lawmakers Tuesday about reopening too soon, Kushner said Fauci is “incredibly knowledgeable,” but that his advice must be taken alongside other factors. Continue reading.
The new chief of staff is witnessing Trump White House truisms: Power centers vie over many decisions, and Jared Kushner is often the most powerful voice.
When the White House’s top domestic policy job came open in recent weeks, newly installed chief of staff Mark Meadows was quick to suggest a surprising name: Stephen Miller.
The proposal, described by three people familiar with the situation, would place Miller, the hard-charging force behind the administration’s immigration policies, in a better-defined role as Meadows worked to reshape the West Wing.
But Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, intervened. He suggested others he had worked with at the White House. Eventually, Derek Lyons, who is viewed as close to Kushner, became the new acting director of the Domestic Policy Council. Continue reading.
The White House is pushing back on criticism of Jared Kushner’s role in responding to the coronavirus crisis after a sustained barrage of media fire on the president’s son-in-law.
Kushner has been hit for some upbeat comments he has made in interviews — which critics have derided as hopelessly optimistic — as well as alleged shortcomings in the work of the team of volunteers he has headed.
Now the administration is pressing the case in Kushner’s defense, after both The New York Times and The Washington Post reported extensively on the volunteer group. Continue reading.
The coronavirus response being spearheaded by President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has relied in part on volunteers from consulting and private equity firms with little expertise in the tasks they were assigned, exacerbating chronic problems in obtaining supplies for hospitals and other needs, according to numerous government officials and a volunteer involved in the effort.
About two dozen employees from Boston Consulting Group, Insight, McKinsey and other firms have volunteered their time — some on paid vacation leave from their jobs and others without pay — to aid the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to administration officials and others familiar with the arrangement.
Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with their assigned jobs, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee. Continue reading.
