March 18: On This Day In 2019
Kushner, the real estate firm founded by Jared Kushner’s relatives, received $1.1 billion from funds associated with a foreign government. So what? Well, Jared Kushner is the son-in-law of Donald Trump, and one of his most trusted advisors.
After the cash was delivered, Trump pivoted from slamming that foreign government to praising it. Coincidence? You be the judge. Here’s the full story:
Kushner’s business was in trouble. They had bought an office building in NYC, 666 Fifth Avenue, at a market peak for $1.8 billion, and were now struggling to cover the debt. When Trump started running for President, the Kushners tried to entice Qatari investors to bail out the building. But he failed; the Qataris rebuffed his pleas.
Once he became a senior White House advisor, Jared allegedly pushed Saudi Arabia and the UAE to impose a punishing economic, diplomatic, and military blockade on...perhaps not surprisingly...Qatar. (Jared didn't even bother to tell his own Secretary of State).
This time, faster than you can say “the Art of the (Dirty) Deal,” a Qatari-backed company swooped in and rescued Kushner.
Did this remarkable act of generosity influence U.S. policy, by any chance? Let’s just say that, OTDI 2019, the New York Times quoted this line from @VickyPJWard’s book, Kushner, Inc.: “You’ll notice that the U.S. position toward Qatar changes when the Qataris bail out 666 Fifth Avenue. We look like a banana republic.”
As the AP headline ran: “Trump Extols Qatar on Anti-Terror, Reversing Past Critique.”
It was one in a series of historic lows for U.S. government credibility. Don’t just take our word for it.
A Saudi delegation concluded: “(Kushner) brought to the job scant knowledge,” and “a transactional mind-set,” Just Security reported.
They continued: Senior American officials believed that Kushner’s unauthorized private talks with Saudi prince MBS made him “susceptible to Saudi manipulation,” with “a risk the Saudis were playing him.”
Per the American Conservative, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “concluded that this absolutely vacuous kid was running a second foreign policy out of the White House family quarters. What a mess.”
Btw, the Saudi government later gave Kushner’s investment firm $2 billion.
Sources/Links for further reading
Michelle Goldberg writes about it in a NYT opinion piece on the Kushners:
Just Security has the detailed timeline of the controversy
AP: “Trump extols Qatar on anti-terror, reversing past critique”
Vicky Ward’s investigative portrayal of the “Greed, Ambition, and Corruption” of Jared & Ivanka Kushner is available on Amazon
Summary: Trump changes policy after his Family receives payment. $1.1 billion from Qatari sources to Jared Kushner's family firm