How the Trump Campaign Took Over the G.O.P.

New York Times logoThe president’s campaign manager and his allies commandeered Republican voter data and fund-raising engines, consolidating power —  and profiting – in ways never before possible.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s campaign manager and a circle of allies have seized control of the Republican Party’s voter data and fund-raising apparatus, using a network of private businesses whose operations and ownership are cloaked in secrecy, largely exempt from federal disclosure.

Working under the aegis of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, with the cooperation of Trump appointees at the Republican National Committee, the operatives have consolidated power — and made money — in a way not possible in an earlier, more transparent analog era. Since 2017, businesses associated with the group have billed roughly $75 million to the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and a range of other Republican clients.

The takeover of the Republican Party’s under-the-hood political machinery parallels the president’s domination of a party that once shunned him, reflected in his speedy impeachment trial and summary acquittal. Elected Republicans have learned the political peril of insufficient fealty. Now, by commanding the party’s repository of voter data and creating a powerful pipeline for small donations, the Trump campaign and key party officials have made it increasingly difficult for Republicans to mount modern, digital campaigns without the president’s support. Continue reading.

Former Republican slams Jared Kushner’s stunning arrogance in a scathing column

AlterNet logoDuring an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria over the weekend, White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner (who is married to President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump) had a lot to say about those who have left the administration on bad terms. Conservative Washington Post opinion writer Max Boot, in a scathing column, notes how “contemptuous” Kushner was of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly during the interview — stressing that Kushner’s remarks underscore his arrogance.

In Trump’s administration, Kushner told Zakaria, the “cream has risen” — and Trump “has cycled out a lot of the people who didn’t have what it took to be successful here.” As Kushner evidently sees it, Boot writes, Tillerson, Bolton and Kelly didn’t have the skills necessary to perform well in Trump’s administration.

“Presumably, Kushner thinks that he is emblematic of the ‘cream’ that has risen to the top,” the former Republican writes. “He must be one of the ‘excellent’ people who have what it takes ‘to be successful here’ — although what that is beyond having married the boss’ daughter remains a mystery. He is the living embodiment of football coach Barry Switzer’s scathing quip: ‘some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.’” Continue reading.

Critics Lash Jared Kushner For Saying Bolton, Kelly, Mattis Didn’t ‘Have What It Took’

Like a wife who’s the president’s daughter?

News watchers’ jaws dropped when CNN reported Saturday that President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and political neophyte Jared Kushner claimed that former national security adviser John Bolton, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and former White House chief of staff John Kelly didn’t last in the Trump administration because they “didn’t have what it took.”

The comments are part of a CNN interview with Fareed Zakaria that will air Sunday. Kushner, referring to the heavyweights, claimed they were no longer in the administration because Trump “cycled out a lot of the people who didn’t have what it took to be successful” in the White House.

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Kushner was head of his family’s real estate business with absolutely no political experience when he was named senior White House adviser by his father-in-law as soon as Trump took office. Continue reading.

Trump offers two-state peace plan for Israeli-Palestinian conflict amid skepticism

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Tuesday unveiled his long-awaited Middle East peace plan that was hailed by Israel and ripped by Palestinian leaders.

Trump unveiled his plan at the White House alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just weeks before the Israeli leader is set to compete in a contentious third round of national elections and the same day he became the country’s first sitting prime minister to be formally indicted. The announcement also came amid Trump’s impeachment, briefly shifting the focus away from the seventh day of his trial in the Senate.

Shortly after the announcement, the Israeli government said it would vote this weekend on annexing 30 percent of the West Bank. Continue reading.

Kushner’s Global Role Shrinks as He Tackles Another: The 2020 Election

New York Times logoIvanka Trump’s husband will now supervise her father’s re-election campaign, but he continues to weigh in with advice to the president on a range of other matters.

WASHINGTON — When senior administration officials gathered in the Situation Room on Tuesday for a meeting to discuss the repercussions of the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Vice President Mike Pence had a seat at the table. So did Robert O’Brien, the national security adviser, and Mark T. Esper, the defense secretary.

But the White House aide whose portfolio is the Middle East was notably absent from the meeting.

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was sitting for a photo shoot for a planned Time magazine cover story. He was also absent from the Situation Room later in the day when it was clear Iran was launching an attack on American forces and the same officials rushed back, joined by Mr. Trump and West Wing aides like Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, and Stephanie Grisham, the press secretary. Continue reading.

Jared Kushner’s new assignment: Overseeing the construction of Trump’s border wall

Washington Post logoPresident Trump has made his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the de facto project manager for constructing his border wall, frustrated with a lack of progress over one of his top priorities as he heads into a tough reelection campaign, according to current and former administration officials.

Kushner convenes biweekly meetings in the West Wing, where he questions an array of government officials about progress on the wall, including updates on contractor data, precisely where it will be built and how funding is being spent. He also shares and explains the president’s wishes with the group, according to the officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser is pressing U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite the process of taking over private land needed for the project as the government seeks to meet Trump’s goal of erecting 450 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of 2020. More than 800 filings to seize private property will need to be made in the coming months if the government is going to succeed, officials aid.

View the complete November 25 article by Josh Dawsey and Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.

Roger Stone Trial Testimony Ends With Talk of Outreach to Jared Kushner

WASHINGTON — Testimony in the colorful trial of Roger Stone — featuring talk of dognapping and Godfather references — wrapped up Tuesday with a top Trump campaign official telling jurors that Stone tried to contact Jared Kushner to “debrief” him about hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

While Stone’s trial in Washington didn’t produce the bombshells about President Donald Trump that some expected, the testimony over the last week reinforced that those at the highest ranks of the Trump campaign were eager to gather information about WikiLeaks’ plan to release the damaging emails and saw Stone — who had repeatedly inferred he had inside information about those plans — as the best person to gather that intelligence.

Stone, a longtime Trump friend and ally, is charged with witness tampering and lying to Congress about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks about the damaging material during the 2016 presidential campaign.

View the complete November 12 article on the Time website here.

Jared Kushner Attending Saudi Conference Raises ‘Red Flag” with Saudi Arabian in His Financial Disclosure: Ethics Experts

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s participating in Saudi Arabia’s annual investment conference this week raised ethics concerns from a watchdog alleging that the Saudi government is a part-owner of a company building a Trump-branded property that Kushner’s wife Ivanka Trump holds a stake in.

Kushner, a senior White House adviser, arrived at the Future Investment Initiative forum in Riyadh on Tuesday, a year after Western leaders, including some from the United States boycotted the conference due to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In a report on its website Tuesday, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) pointed to its finding from last year that the Trump Organization’s business partner in Indonesia signed a deal with a Saudi government-owned construction firm to build a Trump-branded resort. The agreement was apparently reached three weeks before Khashoggi disappeared.

View the complete October 30 article by Jessica Kwong on the Newsweek website here.

Mike Pence’s biographer confirms Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are trying to dump the vice president: ‘That’s all real’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump is purposefully humiliating his vice president with a series of loyalty tests as his daughter and son-in-law scheme to find a replacement as his 2020 running mate, according to a new biography.

Journalist Tom LoBianco, who has covered Mike Pence’s political career since its very beginning, previewed his new biography, “Piety & Power,” on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“Over the summer he had two terrible events in July,” LoBianco said. “The weird thing where he flies out to New Hampshire, gets called back to the last minute. Then they send him to a detention camp and there is a terrible video of him with a grim face, which should have been Trump. That should have been the president, not the vice president, that’s what VP’s aides and allies are telling me. They see that as Trump yanking on the leash.”

View the complete September 23 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Exclusive: Kushner tells GOP it needs to unify behind immigration plan

The Hill logoSenior White House adviser Jared Kushner told Senate Republicans Wednesday that the party should unite behind a 600-page immigration plan he crafted ahead of the 2020 election so the party can provide a positive vision for reform.

President Trump’s son-in-law received a warm reception from Senate Republicans who attended the lunchtime meeting in the Senate’s historic Mansfield Room. 

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Kushner’s bill would be good for the party because it would define Republicans as the party of legal immigration and draw a contrast with Democrats as the “party of illegal immigration,” according to a person in the room.

View the complete September 11 by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.