Why is Trump not fulfilling his agenda to Make America Great Again? In Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. the Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Vicky Ward paints a terrifying picture of Javanka’s control over the Trump presidency. If you’ve wondered if Ivanka wanders into the Oval Office during her father’s meetings, sometimes with one of her children in tow, and sweet-talks her dad in a singsong voice, Ward’s book confirms it.
The book details the Kushner family, then gets into Jared and Ivanka’s role in Trump’s campaign and administration.
Kushner Corruption
Jared was raised in a close-knit family, but not one that prided itself on ethics. His father, Charlie Kushner, gave Harvard $2.5 million shortly before he applied and was able to get Sen. Ted Kennedy to call them. Not surprisingly, Jared was accepted. In 2003, Charlie paid a prostitute to service his sister’s husband and had the whole thing filmed for a blackmail tape. Chris Christie, who was then U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, negotiated the plea agreement, in which Charlie pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering for the blackmail tape of his brother-in-law. Jared sided with his father in the feud and blamed everyone else, and flew to Alabama every weekend to visit his father in prison.
While Charlie was in prison, Jared essentially took over the family business, Kushner Companies Inc. After Charlie was out, they started on a rehabilitation plan suggested by New York real estate public relations guru Howard Rubenstein:
First, buy a trophy asset in Manhattan and shift his center of operations from New Jersey to New York City. Second, buy a newspaper or publication, ostensibly owned by Jared. Third, have Jared date someone prominent.
They purchased The New York Observer and soon Jared was courted by everyone in New York. Rather than quality journalism, Jared and Charlie wanted to use the paper as a place to run “hit pieces on people who’d upset them and glowing articles on those they wanted to win over.” At one point, Jared had a software developer delete articles he didn’t like behind the editor’s back. Jared was overheard saying: “Tell them that if they don’t do what we want, we’ll write a negative article about them in the Observer.” The trophy asset they purchased was 666 Fifth Avenue, bought mostly with debt. And Jared’s marriage to Ivanka far exceeded simply dating someone prominent.
But why was Ivanka drawn to Jared? For one, they had a lot in common, both being raised in somewhat shady real estate families, and both are the children of billionaires. Ward paints a picture of Ivanka’s childhood as lonely and lacking parental involvement, and says Ivanka was drawn to Kushner’s close-knit family. Both Jared and Ivanka are focused on improving their real estate holdings and other businesses and the networking it involves. And they’re both reportedly shallow, egocentric, and not-too-bright: Those close to them report that the only books in their apartment are decorative. It probably didn’t hurt that Jared’s net worth vastly exceeds hers.
Javanka Goes to Washington
Jared got involved in Trump’s presidential campaign only when it looked like his father-in-law had a shot of winning, apparently at the behest of Charlie. Ward describes Jared talking to his father every day and letting him listen in on meetings by surreptitiously putting his phone on speaker and hiding it.
Jared and Ivanka are described similarly by those who know them in Washington. Both are “extraordinarily entitled,” absent frequently, tiresome, manipulative, liars, arrogant, and unfortunately, omnipresent. Ward reports that they maneuver behind-the-scenes to get rid of people in their way and have both used private email accounts for government work. Ward says that Jared comes across as arrogant, overly self-confident, and that he meddles in everything.
While everyone else was selling off assets in order to join Trump’s White House staff, Jared and Ivanka didn’t play by the rules. A former colleague said, “The fact that it was reported that their businesses made money while they were in the White House caused a great deal of anxiety and strife among everyone else.” Ivanka didn’t sell her business; instead, she turned it over to a lawyer to run and she continued to take equity payments. She continued to own a 7% stake in the Trump International Hotel in D.C., valued at between $5 and $25 million, and Jared only took a limited divestment from Kushner Companies. It was reported that Ivanka (or her trust) made $12.6 million since early 2016, and that while working in the White House she continued to make at least $1.5 million a year from her business. Combined, they reportedly made $82 million in 2017. This is unheard of for people in their position, and highly unethical, if not illegal. A financial disclosure showed that Jared and Ivanka are worth between $144 and $740 million.
Jared left blank the “foreign contacts” section of his security clearance forms, a move his attorney called unintentional. He reportedly went behind Trump’s back to seal the White House visitor logs so people wouldn’t notice his networking with investment firms (to secure a loan for 666 Fifth Ave.). He’s accused of being ignorant and harmful during arms deals negotiations, perhaps endangering the U.S. due to his foreign interference, and possibly pushing for foreign policy to retaliate against people who wouldn’t give his family a loan. Kusher, Inc. details Jared’s relationship with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia under fire for human rights abuses, with whom he chats on WhatsApp and has over for dinner.
Jared (and Ivanka) have had conflicts with nearly everyone in the Trump admin, including former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon; former Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn; former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus; former Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh; former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; former FBI Director James Comey; former Press Secretary Sean Spicer; spokesman for Trump’s private legal team Mark Corallo; former Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly; former National Security Advisor Gen. H. R. McMaster; former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski; and head of the transition team Chris Christie, who had overseen the investigation into Charlie Kushner as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.
Other scandals include how Jared “kept trying to get his younger brother involved” in discussions about repealing and replacing Obamacare. His brother, Josh Kushner, co-founded Oscar Health Insurance, which can be purchased on the Affordable Care Act’s state exchanges. Jared was steadfastly opposed to eliminating Obamacare, which would also mean the end of Oscar.
When Jared announced he’d be leading the White House Office of American Innovation, Steve Bannon was furious and told people, “It was a front . . . for Jared to hang out with [Apple CEO] Tim Cook … and Lloyd Blankfein” (CEO of Goldman Sachs). Many people felt that Jared and Ivanka’s sole purpose in D.C. was oriented toward their own future—to make connections, in business and both national and international politics, that would help them after they left D.C.
Meanwhile, Ivanka’s offices are nicknamed “HABI”—the Home of All Bad Ideas:
Some Ivanka ideas were considered so “crazy” that her offices were nicknamed “HABI”—the Home of All Bad Ideas. It didn’t help that Ivanka had a reputation for being flighty. It was also noted that she wore a new designer outfit every day and came in late, at 10 A.M., usually with hair and makeup professionally done. She sometimes changed her outfit three times a day. She was also an attention-grabber. She sat next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting on vocational training during Merkel’s March visit to the White House, a move for which she was roundly criticized.
Jared and Ivanka also don’t share Trump’s views. Jared had secret meetings with Sens. Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin about DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), contrary to Trump’s agenda. Ivanka reportedly tried to get her father to back down on the Muslim travel ban, and may have gotten her father to bomb Syria. Ward writes:
Bannon now started to tell allies in and outside the White House that he was concerned that Kushner had no belief in the substance of what they had campaigned on. He feared they could no longer be partners and that, inevitably, he was in for a political knife fight with Javanka. Priebus was also deeply frustrated by the couple’s political opposition to the Trump agenda. They opposed every executive order that was on Bannon’s whiteboard and every policy Trump had campaigned on: the repeal of Obamacare, the exit from the Paris Agreement on climate change, immigration … on and on.
I can’t recommend Kushner, Inc. highly enouch to anyone who supported Trump. Get the facts and head to social media to start spreading the word to #FireKushner.
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