WP Opinion Jared and Ivanka are slinking back to Gomorrah
By Kathleen Parker
August 4, 2023 at 5:27 p.m. EDT
If only Ivanka Trump were as witty as Barbie. Instead, she and her Ken, Jared Kushner, somnambulate like renegades from the wax museum from one investment fund to the next. Preternaturally perfect and utterly lacking in affect, Javanka, as they’re called, make real dolls seem animated.
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Do you suppose the naked pursuit of power and money makes people unhappy? Or, in their case, is it the killer company they keep?
Both spawns of excessive wealth and privilege, Ivanka and Jared are reason enough to cast Donald Trump into the outer darkness. Their presence in the White House from 2017 to 2021 was a frequent embarrassment, as they convinced themselves that their value amounted to more than the family name. For a while after the 2020 election, they distanced themselves from Trump, which meant we were all spared their spectral visages.
But those days are nigh gone, as the pair appears to be back in search of the family ring. (Run, Gollum, run.)
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Their timing is undoubtedly connected to recent polling showing Trump leading his GOP competitors by nearly 40 points. Family loyalty apparently is a lot like reality TV; it’s all about the ratings. However, reports of the couple dropping in on meetings and attending family gatherings came before a federal grand jury issued a four-count criminal indictment charging Trump with co-conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results, defrauding the American people and aiding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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Trump could be doomed. Or not. With him, one never knows. It’s hard to gauge whether these latest charges will budge his supporters. I doubt it, since to be a Trump fan is to distrust everyone other than He Who Must Be Obeyed. Nor do supporters probably care that Jared and Ivanka took advantage of their White House status to enrich themselves.
Ivanka might be forgiven for her conflicted relationship with Trump. He’s Daddy, after all. But familial attachments do not — and did not — qualify her or Kushner to serve as senior advisers to the president of the United States. When Kushner was denied security clearance by career intelligence officers because of concerns about foreign influence, outside business interests and personal conduct, Trump overrode them.
As for Kushner’s credulity-straining role as impromptu diplomat to the Middle East, we can only wonder what other conversations took place as he persuaded leaders in Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco to recognize Israel’s sovereignty and normalize relations among them. The Abraham Accords are widely viewed as a landmark development toward building relationships and mitigating tensions in the Persian Gulf region. But it is also increasingly clear that Kushner was simultaneously securing his own financial future via massive investments in his pop-up private equity firm, Affinity Partners, by many of the very same countries that signed the accords. Quelle coincidence.
Kushner’s biggest financial backer, however, was Saudi Arabia, which declined to sign the accords. This was of no consequence to Kushner, who was already pals with Mohammed bin Salman, commonly known as MBS, before joining the Trump White House. The two “princes,” both then in their 30s and eager to establish themselves on the international stage, reportedly bonded as only the born elite can.
Less than six months after leaving the White House, Kushner secured a $2 billion commitment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which MBS controls, despite opposition from the fund’s board of directors because of Kushner’s lack of experience in private equity. Other countries followed suit, including signatories to the accords — the UAE, Qatar, Sudan and Morocco. Today, Affinity’s investment commitments have reached at least $3 billion, which is not a bad haul for a young adviser to a twice-impeached president who, recently arrested for the third time, faces several fresh indictments.
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Trump investigations
Donald Trump has been indicted in three cases and is under investigation in one other. The Washington Post is keeping track of where each Trump investigation stands. Here is a breakdown of all 78 charges Trump faces.
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Lest I be accused of marinating in my own self-righteous disdain, as former National Review editor Rich Lowry has characterized Kushner critics, let’s be clear. Federal law prohibits using one’s public position for personal gain. I can’t prove Kushner used his position to procure funding for Affinity Partners, but to believe otherwise would be ingenuous.
Even if he didn’t break any laws, Kushner crossed every conceivable ethical line in his relationship with MBS by defending him inside the White House when he was under international fire for the murder of Saudi dissident and Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi — even after the CIA concluded that MBS had ordered the killing. As Donald Trump bragged to Bob Woodward, “I saved his a--.”
At the same time, Trump sold $8 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia after vetoing congressional resolutions to block the sale. If the $2 billion wasn’t payback, what was it? Perhaps a down payment on future favors from a second-term President Trump.
No one’s naive here. The United States is forced at times to negotiate with bad actors. But shouldn’t there be limits to what we ignore and, thus, condone to achieve our goals? To essentially dismiss Khashoggi’s ghastly murder seems to me a dismembered body too far.
You can hear the Trumpets already. Oh, yeah? What about Hunter Biden? Good question. You don’t hear me saying nothing to see here. Investigations are ongoing into Biden’s financial dealings with Ukraine and China, and there seems to be plenty to see. The truth is all three of these entitled darlings are skunks — Hunter, Ivanka and Jared. But don’t blame the little furry fellah. That smell is the stench of corruption.
More on the Trump Jan. 6 indictment
The latest: Former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election in the runup to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The charges: Trump faces four charges in connection with what prosecutors allege was a plan to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Here’s a breakdown of the charges against Trump and what they mean and things that stand out from the Trump indictment. Read the full text of the 45-page indictment, which references Pence or vice presidency more than 100 times.
The case: The special counsel’s office has been investigating whether Trump or those close to him violated the law by interfering with the lawful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election or with Congress’s confirmation of the results on Jan. 6, 2021. It is one of several ongoing investigations involving Trump. Here’s what happens next in the Jan. 6 case.
Can Trump still run for president? While it has never been attempted by a candidate from a major party before, Trump is allowed to run for president while under indictment — or even if he is convicted of a crime.
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Opinion by Kathleen Parker
Kathleen Parker writes a twice-weekly column on politics and culture. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2010. Twitter
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