WASHINGTON—The most successful deal of Jared Kushner’s short and consequential career in real estate and politics involves one highly leveraged acquisition: a pair of adjoining offices a few penny-loafer paces from his father-in-law’s desk in the White House.
Over the past week, Kushner, who at age 36 occupies an ill-defined role somewhere between princeling and President Donald J. Trump’s shadow chief of staff, has seen his foothold on that invaluable real estate shrink amid revelations he is under scrutiny in a federal investigation into whether there was collusion with Russian officials during the presidential campaign.
Kushner, an observant Jew, spent the Sabbath in fretful seclusion with his wife, Ivanka Trump, at his father-in-law’s resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, unplugged, per religious custom, from electronics. But he emerged defiant and eager to defend his reputation in congressional hearings, according to two of his associates.
What is less clear is how Kushner’s high-profile woes will affect his hard-won influence on a mercurial father-in-law who is eager to put distance between himself and a scandal that is swamping his agenda and, he believes, threatening his family.
Some Democrats are calling on the president to revoke Kushner’s security clearances. Rep. Adam B. Schiff, Democrat-California, senior Democrat on the House committee investigating Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election, suggested in an interview last Sunday that the recent news reports about Kushner have brought the investigation from the periphery of the Trump campaign and transition teams into the Oval Office.
“If these stories are accurate” in their description of Kushner and Michael Flynn, Trump’s ousted national security adviser, “were they acting at the behest of Trump, then-candidate or president-elect Trump? But whether they were or not, they’re still significant.”
In a statement last Sunday night, Trump praised his son-in-law and the work he has done in the White House. “Jared is doing a great job for the country,” he said. “I have total confidence in him. He is respected by virtually everyone and is working on programs that will save our country billions of dollars. In addition to that, and perhaps more important, he is a very good person.”
But in recent weeks the Trump-Kushner relationship, the most stable partnership in an often unstable West Wing, is showing unmistakable signs of strain.
That relationship had already begun to fray a bit after Trump’s dismissal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, James Comey, which Kushner had strongly advocated, and because of his repeated attempts to oust Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, as well as the president’s overburdened communications team, especially Sean Spicer, the press secretary.
It has been duly noted in the White House that Trump, who feels that he has been ill served by his staff, has increasingly included Kushner when he dresses down aides and officials, a rarity earlier in his administration and during the campaign.
The most serious point of contention between the president and his son-in-law, two people familiar with the interactions said, was a video clip this month of Kushner’s sister, Nicole Meyer, pitching potential investors in Beijing on a Kushner Cos. condominium project in Jersey City, New Jersey.
At one point, Meyer—who remains close to Kushner—dangled the availability of EB-5 visas to the United States as an enticement for Chinese financiers willing to shell out $500,000 or more.
For Trump, Meyer’s performance violated two major rules. Politically, it undercut his immigration crackdown, and in a personal sense, it smacked of profiteering off Trump—one of the sins that warrants expulsion from his orbit.
In the following days during routine West Wing meetings, the president made several snarky, disparaging comments about Kushner’s family and the visas that were clearly intended to express his annoyance, two aides said. Kushner did not respond, at least not in earshot.
His preppy aesthetic, sotto vocestyle and preference for backstage maneuvering seemingly sets him apart from his father-in-law—but the similarities outweigh the differences. Both men were reared in the freewheeling, ruthless world of real estate, and both possess an unshakable self-assurance that is both their greatest attribute and direst vulnerability.
Kushner’s reported feeler to the Russians even as President Barack Obama remained in charge of US foreign policy was a trademark move by someone with a deep confidence in his abilities that critics say borders on conceit, people close to him said. And it echoes his history of sailing forth into unknown territory, including buying a newspaper at age 25 and developing a data-analytics program that he has said helped deliver the presidency to his father-in-law.
He is intensely proud of his accomplishments in the private sector and has repeatedly suggested his tenure in Washington will hurt, not help, his brand and bottom line.
That unfailing self-regard has not endeared him to the rest of the staff. Resentful Trump staff members have long talked about “Jared Island”, to describe the special status occupied by Kushner, who, in their view, is given license to exercise power and take on a vague portfolio—“Middle East peace” and “innovation” are its central components—without suffering the consequences of failure visited by the president on mere hirelings.
Image credits: Doug Mills/The New York Times