Tag: Trump nepotism

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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Jared Kushner says Trump critics like John Bolton and other former White House officials “didn’t have what it took” https://cnn.it/36NzekV 

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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.

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.

Crying and bullying: Report reveals how Ivanka Trump manipulates the press into giving her good coverage

AlterNet logoAccording to a deep dive into how Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner keep getting flattering “puff pieces” written about them in major media outlets, despite multiple financial scandals, the Daily Beast reports the daughter of President Donald Trump has, over the years, become an expert at working over editors and publishers with tears or threats to get her way.

The Beast’s Hannah Seligson reveals that reporters who have written about the couple, who now serve as unpaid White House advisers, have come to learn that anything that hints of criticism will face quick pushback — both directly and indirectly.

“On August 16, 2016, just a few weeks after his father-in-law, Donald J. Trump, had clinched the Republican nomination for president, Esquire magazine ran a story entitled ‘Jared Kushner’s Second Act.’ It was written by veteran journalist Vicky Ward and exposed a number of less-than-flattering details about the then 35-year-old head of his family’s real estate firm, Kushner Companies,” Seligson writes before adding that Ivanka immediately went up the chain of command to get the story pulled.

View the complete October 27 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

RNC Chair Decries ‘Nepotism’ — But Trump Likes It

GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel earned widespread mockery on Tuesday after she went on the attack against former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

Hunter Biden has faced scrutiny for his involvement with a Ukrainian oil company while his father served as vice president, who conducted diplomacy in the region. Hunter Biden gave something of a defense of his actions in a new interview with ABC, though he conceded he showed “poor judgment” by working with foreign companies while his father was in office.

McDaniel pilloried Hunter, but in doing so, she opened herself up to predictable accusations of hypocrisy:

View the complete October 15 article by Cody Fenwick from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

International programs favored by Ivanka Trump and Mike Pence will be spared by federal budget cuts: report

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump has been calling for extensive cuts to foreign aid programs. But on Monday, a senior Trump Administration official told Roll Call that that programs favored by Vice President Mike Pence and White House adviser Ivanka Trump will not be affected by a package of foreign aid cuts.

President Trump is “not going to touch those,” the anonymously quoted official told Roll Call.

The foreign spending package would include cuts to U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development programs. But the programs that will survive the cuts, according to Roll Call, will include programs that promote women’s economic development in other countries (an Ivanka Trump favorite) and programs to protect Christians from persecution in other countries (a Mike Pence favorite).

View the complete August 13 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Adviser, son-in-law and hidden campaign hand: How Kushner is trying to help Trump win in 2020

Washington Post logoAfter Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale decided he wanted to make the recruitment of donors a top strategy in President Trump’s 2020 reelection bid, his first conversation was with someone not officially employed by the campaign at all: Jared Kushner.

Parscale expected the effort to cost $20 million or more in this year alone, so he knew he had to get buy-in from Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser before moving forward.

“It was something that could make a huge impact on our winning and losing,” Parscale said in an interview. “Once he was onboard, we went together to sell the president.”

View the complete July 26 article by Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Why Ivanka Trump didn’t belong anywhere near the DMZ or the G-20 summit

Washington Post logoWho benefits most from her government role — the American people or her family?

Since President Trump took office, the White House has been pushing the boundaries of what the American public will tolerate in terms of family involvement in presidential decision-making, intermingling of official government business with Trump’s private businesses and development of foreign policy strategy. (After all, the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, just released a Middle East peace plan.) But even by Trump’s low standards, this past week broke new ground.

The president put forth his daughter Ivanka as a stand-in for actual diplomats and government officials at several high-level meetings and interactions with world leaders at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, and at meetings in South Korea and the demilitarized zone on the North Korea-South Korea border. Ivanka Trump was by the president’s side for his visit to the DMZ, while his national security adviser, John Bolton, was dispatched to Mongolia. A video showed her apparently trying to join a conversation among French President Emmanuel Macron, outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May and International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde in an encounter that looked as though she thought she was at a Hamptons cocktail party. The first daughter was later introduced alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a visit with U.S. troops in South Korea.

This ascension of family-directed foreign affairs is an unhealthy development for our democracy. And Ivanka Trump ought to back off: Americans didn’t elect her, we don’t have any way of holding her accountable and we don’t support her playacting at government.

View the complete July 2 article by Carrie Cordero on The Washington Post website here.

Former White House Republican blasts Ivanka’s ‘sad and pitiful’ attempts to break onto the world stage

AlterNet logoFormer White House aide Elise Jordan was shocked by Ivanka Trump’s prominent participation over the weekend at the G-20 summit in Japan.

President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter — who is also a senior White House adviser — and her husband Jared Kushner took part in meetings with other nations, and was seen in a viral video awkwardly trying to insert herself in private conversations with world leaders.

“I absolutely can’t believe it,” said Jordan, who served in George W. Bush’s administration. “Having served around so many incredibly talented diplomats and government officials, that she just gets to waltz up on the stage as if she’s secretary of state without any Senate confirmation process, and has so much unadulterated power at her fingertips.”

View the complete July 1 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

 

‘Surreal’: Ivanka Trump plays a prominent role in her father’s historic Korea trip

Washington Post logoFew Americans alive today have set foot inside North Korea, the isolated, nuclear-armed dictatorship sometimes called the Hermit Kingdom.

On Sunday, Ivanka Trump became one of them, capping a consequential three-day Asian trip in which the president’s eldest daughter played a very public role that blended family ties with diplomatic work that is usually performed by diplomats.

She pronounced the short walk to the other side of one of the world’s most fortified borders “surreal.”

View the complete June 30 article by Anne Gearan on The Washington Post website here.

#UnwantedIvanka Is The Latest Trump Family Meme

The cold-shouldered response to her interrupting politicians at the G20 summit has seen her photoshopped into other political events beyond her reach

Ivanka Trump’s presence on the global stage often prompts questions of what exactly her role as advisor to her father President Donald Trump entails, as well as jokes about her participating in ‘Bring Your Daughter To Work’ days.

The First Daughter attended the G20 Summit in Osaka this weekend for an event on women’s empowerment, following the launch of the initiative launched two years ago. However, the moment which has attracted the most attention was a clip of her repeatedly interrupting a conversation between world leaders, and their bemused reactions.

In an Instagram Story uploaded by the French Presidential palace, clearly purveyors of political satire, Ivanka can be seen on the fringe of the conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and head of the IMF Christine Lagarde.

View the complete July 1 article by Olivia Ovenden on The Esquire website here.