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Former First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner appeared at a politics-centered conference in Florida yesterday, and there he told reporters that he's done with politics, and he wants to focus on his equity firm "at this phase" of his life. He also emphasized his commitment to "my investors, to my firm, to my employees, to my partners, and that's what I'm planning to do."
Kushner has only one investor who matters, and that is the Saudi Arabian royal family, which is led by his good buddy Mohammed bin Salman. There is little question that MbS and his family tossed Kushner a $2 billion bone because they wanted to reserve a big chunk of influence in a potential second Trump administration. So, the Saudi royals will undoubtedly be disappointed to hear that Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump are not planning a return to Washington.
As to the Kushners, they're never going to explain openly why they're holding dad at arm's length, but there are really only two conceivable explanations. The first is that they really, really, really love money, and there's way more of it available to servants of the Kingdom of Saud than there is to servants of Uncle Sam. The second is that they don't want to be anywhere in the same ZIP code the next time indictable offenses are committed, as they surely will be if Donald Trump returns to the White House. Jared is particularly sensitive to this, since his father did some time in the pokey. So, the younger Kushner has undoubtedly gotten an earful or two about how unpleasant it is.
The unavailability of his son-in-law, should there be a second Trump presidency, means that The Donald will simply have to find someone else to reorganize the federal government, solve the opioid crisis and bring peace to the Middle East. Shouldn't be too hard to find someone capable of handling all three. After all, Kushner did such a great job when those things were part of HIS portfolio. (Z)