The Wooing of Jared Kushner: How the Saudis Got a Friend in the White House

Prince Mohammed bin Salman with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Riyadh last year. Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Senior American officials were worried. Since the early months of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, had been having private, informal conversations with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son of Saudi Arabia’s king.

Given Mr. Kushner’s political inexperience, the private exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manipulation, said three former senior American officials. In an effort to tighten practices at the White House, a new chief of staff tried to reimpose longstanding procedures stipulating that National Security Council staff members should participate in all calls with foreign leaders.

But even with the restrictions in place, Mr. Kushner, 37, and Prince Mohammed, 33, kept chatting, according to three former White House officials and two others briefed by the Saudi royal court. In fact, they said, the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other Jared and Mohammed in text messages and phone calls.

View the complete December 8 article by David D. Kirkpatrick, Ben Hubbard, Mark Landler and Mark Mazzeti on The New York Times website here.