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JARED KUSHNER - IVANKA T-RUMP

Jared Kushner Reportedly Helped Create T-RUMP Campaign Shell 

Company to Secretly Pay President’s Family With Pending Lawsuits…

REALITY SETS IN… Jared and Ivanka Realize Dad’s A Schmuck  —  CNN)   With each passing day away from Washington, former President Donald Trump's grievances continue unabated. And those complaints appear to be driving away two of the people who were closest to him during his White House tenure: his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Sometimes the former President complains for several hours about the "stolen" 2020 election. Other times, his frustrations emerge in fits and starts -- more likely when he is discussing his hopeful return to national politics. And while he often has a rotating audience of cheering listeners, the gap between Trump and his daughter and son-in-law grows wider by the week, according to 12 former Trump White House officials, former administration officials, family friends, acquaintances and members of Trump's team who spoke with CNN about changes to the former President's current inner circle.

A large part of the reason for the separation is Trump's constant harping on the past and his inability to move on. The former President has also started to question the role that Kushner -- one of the few people who were able to stay close to Trump throughout his two presidential campaigns and White House tenure -- has played in his presidential legacy.

Ivanka Trump has also struggled to undo the entanglements caused by the years at her father's side in the White House, as she seeks a less complicated life for her family, according to two acquaintances. They described her as having to walk a fine line between embracing her father and distancing herself from his election lies.

Having spent much of the last five-and-a-half years in close proximity to him, Ivanka Trump and Kushner were rarely seen with him in the months leading up to the former President's seasonal shift from living at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, to living in a cottage at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. 

"They weren't around for the usual spring and summer events at Mar-a-Lago," says one clubgoer and family friend, noting the absence of Trump's elder daughter and the couple's three young children. 

Simultaneously, the disappearance of Kushner -- once the ringleader of Trump's policy operations -- was also apparent. A person familiar with Kushner says there were visits from the Kushner/Trump family to Mar-a-Lago before Trump's move North, but they were sparse, averaging once every three to four weeks. The physical distance between them was not far: after leaving Washington, Kushner and Ivanka Trump moved to a Miami high-rise to await the construction of their mansion on a nearby private island.

Kushner's presence, physically and virtually, has become increasingly rare as it became clear that his father-in-law remained preoccupied with the 2020 election, according to one person familiar with the situation. 

"He was kind of like a parent who sticks around less and less each morning while they're transitioning their kid to day care," this person said. 

 
Kushner Moves To The Side  —  It wasn't the distance that kept Kushner away, say those who know his thinking -- it was the desire to be far from Trump's constant stream of contempt, and the chorus of voices cheering him on. 

"Trump always has an array of characters around him," says a person who worked in the administration.

Around mid-March, some of Trump's most trusted advisers began urging him to bring someone onto his team who could oversee daily operations and help organize his candidate meetings, fundraising requests and endorsement vetting process. 

"I don't think it's accurate to say he needed a new Jared, because Jared was always more of a policy guy inside the White House, but there was definitely a sense that some part of the puzzle was missing and it was contributing to a lot of internal confusion and chaos," said a former White House official. 

Eventually, Trump brought on Susie Wiles, a Florida-based consultant who had earned his trust and was a familiar face to others on his payroll. But the frequency of Wiles' appearances, as well as her overall involvement,  has also decreased since Trump relocated to Bedminster for the summer, according to one of the people involved with his operation. 

Another consistent presence is that of Donald Trump Jr, whose penchant for politics has grown in the years since his father entered the political scene and who has become an increasingly trusted adviser to the former real estate mogul. 

Kushner is not helping Trump cook up plans for a rally later this month, nor is he intensely involved with the former President's endorsement decisions or frequent public statements, which, sans a social media presence, come via news releases from Trump's leadership PAC, Save America -- again, something Kushner has veered away from. 

Without input from his elder daughter and her husband, Trump is isolated from their influence, though the person close to Kushner does note he "still speaks on the phone" to the former President.

Now Trump finds himself more often in the company of an ever-changing circle of advisers. Trump allies say he is once again interacting with characters who should require supervision -- noting that he has been in frequent touch with One America News anchor Christina Bobb, a prolific proponent of far-fetched theories about the 2020 election, in addition to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has encouraged Trump to keep challenging the 2020 election results in several states. 

A member of Trump's team tells CNN the former President has "always had siloed relationships" with various people and that even in the White House -- with Kushner ostensibly down the hall -- Trump could frequently be "running his own play." This person notes Trump's cadre of recent influencers is akin to his unconventional way of eliciting opinion. 

"There are other circles around him, yes," says this person, who doesn't argue there are questionable characters in the ear of the former President, "but that doesn't mean he doesn't also have very reasonable and buttoned-up people there as well."

The person close to Kushner adds that the group off whom Trump bounces his most off-the-wall and questionable theories is, while conspiratorial in nature, not completely out of the realm of a host of "regulars" with whom he has held court over the years.   "The stakes now are also less than they were when he was in the White House," says the source. 

Eroded Trust  —  Trump has privately started to question Kushner's contributions to his legacy. One person who spoke with the former President in the last two weeks recounted a conversation in which Trump complained about Kushner inking a book deal that he thinks his son-in-law will use to take credit for some of his achievements. 

Another source confirms there is jealousy from Trump about Kushner's book, which a Kushner associate says was a "seven-figure deal" with Broadside Books, the conservative branch of mega-publisher HarperCollins. Trump, who has lately been helping with several journalists' in-the-works books about his presidency, has yet to announce a deal of his own. 

"He's always been suspicious of Jared," this person said, noting that Trump has previously discounted Kushner's role in some of the key policies he enacted as president, including Middle East peace deals and criminal justice revisions. 

Two people familiar with conversations Trump has had since his arrival in May at Bedminster say he questioned whether Kushner "accomplish[ed] peace in the Middle East after all" after tensions between Israel and Hamas erupted into a violent series of airstrikes last month. 

"It is not a secret President Trump doesn't like when he thinks other people are getting attention for something he feels he has facilitated," says another former Trump White House official. "There's a sweet spot between saying nothing about work you did and saying too much that everyone has to find -- or else he gets triggered."

A person who works with Trump now disputes that the former President has been vocal about disloyalty to Kushner, noting that several of the authors who have interviewed the former President for their books have asked directly whether Trump blames Kushner for his election loss.   "Every time, he's answered definitively, 'no,' on the record," says the person. 

Those close to Kushner laugh off the idea of an estrangement, saying Trump is provocative at times because that is who he is.  They note Kushner is long used to the occasional Trump backlash, and it doesn't bother him.    "He knows Trump acknowledges his successes," says the person close to Kushner. 

Still, the Kushner intimates make no bones about the fact that the couple disagrees with the former President's current pursuits. It's clear that the close advisory relationship is no more.   The distance Kushner and Ivanka Trump have put between their current life and the former President has also helped, but that gap that is soon to close. 

Road Trip —  For the last week, Kushner, Ivanka Trump and their children have been on a summer road trip, from Miami to, eventually, Bedminster. It's the sort of summer activity millions of American families partake in, but the Kushner clan has made stop-offs along the way with a who's who of Trump's former administration. 

Over the weekend, they were in Kiawah, South Carolina, staying with former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who has made no secret of her desire to run for president but remains estranged from Trump's inner circle after publicly criticizing his response to the 2020 election. The Kushners and the Haleys were spotted on a double date at a popular local restaurant. Haley said in April that she would not make a run for the White House in 2024 if Trump decides he will run -- or she would at least discuss that scenario with him. 

"That's something that we'll have a conversation about at some point if that decision is something that has to be made," she said at a news conference.   Haley, like the Kushner's, added that she has put space between herself and the former President, noting she had not talked to him since after the election but before the January 6 storming of the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. 

The source close to Kushner downplayed the visit with Haley, saying South Carolina was just "one of the states along the way" on their drive.   Monday found them in Nashville, paying a visit to former State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, a close friend of Ivanka Trump's and frequent guest on Fox News. During the Trump administration, Ortagus worked for then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has in recent months toyed with the idea of a run for the White House. 

The Kushner family will eventually get to their East Coast digs, and the person close to Kushner noted they will also spend time at their old apartment in New York City, in addition to Bedminster. They'll also perhaps visit the Hamptons, the summer playground of the rich and connected. 

In Bedminster, the Kushner cottage and the Trump cottage are separated by mere tens of feet, about as close as the families have been for an extended period since the White House. Kushner's allies say that won't be a problem for him, as the two men are "not at odds," as one describes their relationship. Another friend of Kushner's says the men have a "good relationship, but Kushner is not anywhere near his political orbit." 

Things might be slightly more challenging for Ivanka Trump, though, who has for the last several months walked a tightrope between Trump, her father, and Trump, the wounded loser of a contentious election. 

For the time being, she is not getting involved in the rhetoric, nor the unknowns that could be on the horizon for her father -- politics, business, relationships or investigations.  "She is being very present, in the moment," says a person who has worked closely with her for the last several years. "She's not concerned."   "After spending four years serving and traveling the country extensively, Ivanka is taking time with family and friends," her former chief of staff, Julie Radford, tells CNN. 

Explaining why the former President's life is not simpatico with his daughter's, one of the people close to Kushner said, "She is focused on her children, and spending time with them, period.”  "Listen, you lose an election, things happen, people get over it, they move on, these are natural consequences," says the friend of Kushner's. 

The person familiar with Trump's thinking insists no one has been "removed" from his inner circle and that whatever the status of the relationship, the blurred lines among employee, adviser and son-in-law exist because they've both made them such.   "This is family, and family is in its own category. Its own unique category," the person said.

Nothing Is Exactly Kosher with The Kushner’s  —  One of Donald Trump's most notable advisors, Jared Kushner, reportedly helped create a campaign shell company to secretly pay the president's family.

Business Insider reports that Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, allegedly approved the creation of the shell company, which ultimately spent approximately half of the Trump campaign's huge $1.26 billion budget. A person close to the situation has alleged that Kushner directed Mike Pence's nephew John Pence, Trump campaign Chief Financial officer Sean Dollman, and Lara Trump to serve on the company's board. The company was incorporated as American Made Media Consultants Corp. and American Made Media Consultants LLC. (or AMMC for short).

The creation of the shell company was supposedly to hide financial and operational details from the public, especially as the Trump campaign supposedly spent an astonishing $617 million on his reelection campaign through the company from January 2019 to November 2020. It was first formed in April 2018, and acted as a campaign within a campaign, doling out money to the president's top advisors and Trump family members. 

By setting up the shell company, the Trump campaign did not need to meet any federally mandated disclosures. To add to the situation, insiders have said that many on the T-RUMP campaign didn't really understand how the company functioned, and the Trump campaign leaders launched an internal audit on it, although the results of the review were never publicly revealed. 

Open Mouth - Say Stupid Things - Lose Votes - As Bad As T-RUMP —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidential adviser Jared Kushner said Monday that President Donald T-RUMP wants to help Black people in America, but they have to “want to be successful” for his policies to work. 

“President Trump’s policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they’re complaining about, but he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful,” Kushner said on “Fox & Friends.”  ( Fox has no friends , they are the toilet bowl of news)  

Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, also criticized prominent people who raised their voices after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody, but then didn’t follow through and work to find ways to improve the lives of Black people in America.

“You saw a lot of people who were just virtue signaling — they go on Instagram and cry, or they would, you know, put a slogan on their jersey or write something on a basketball court,” Kushner said. “Quite frankly, that was doing more to polarize the country than it was to bring people forward. You solve problems with solutions.”

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., accused Kushner of “casual racism.” Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile wrote on Twitter, “He’s talking to folks who have suffered and endured systemic racism and historic tokenism.”

T-RUMP, who has been trying to appeal to the Black community, has been promoting his attempts to set up economic opportunity zones, provide steady funding for historically Black colleges and universities, and institute criminal justice reforms.   Thats lies has been going around for more than four years…

Travels  —  Jared Kushner visited the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial in a delegation with Vice President Mike Pence on February 15, 2019. 

Back in April, as the US coronavirus death toll surpassed 58,000, first son-in-law Jared Kushner took to the airwaves to address the crisis. While it was widely acknowledged that the administration’s shambolic response to COVID-19—which included dubbing it fake news and then putting  a dog breeder in charge of the Health and Human Services task force—had allowed the disease to gain a foothold in the country.

The Boy Prince of New Jersey had a slightly different take on the situation. Claiming that America was “on the other side of the medical aspect of this,” Kushner told Fox News: “The federal government rose to the challenge and this is a great success story. And I think that that’s what really needs to be told.” 

Of course, in reality, that wasn’t true at all: In the time since young Jared claimed that the public health aspect of the pandemic was in the rearview, almost 170,000 more people have died in the US. Nearly five months and close to 228,000 dead people later, what does Kushner think of his father-in-law’s handling of the whole thing? If we were to hang T-RUMP for murder which is what it is, he know the consequence of his actions and I see it as murder.  Let mini -T-RUMP, Pence, Barr and Mcconnell share a rope with him… his lies are just as deadly…

A True Scumbag Like T-RUMP Lieing Is his DNA  —  Appearing on the Today show on Tuesday morning, Kushner told Savannah Guthrie that people should be thanking their lucky stars that a guy like Donald T-RUMP is in charge right now. “All the different challenges that people were hysterical about, whether it was governors or the media, we worked with them very closely, and again, it was very good to have an entrepreneurial president who doesn’t do things in a bureaucratic way. 

He ran to all the different problems…He confronted them seriously.” Asked why T-RUMP actively lied to the public about the severity of the disease, which he fully admitted to last week, Kushner, also lying, insisted that, “the president was very forthcoming with the American people about what he knew and when he knew it.”

Thank You For Your Service, Jared Kushner

(CNN)  by Christopher Michael Cillizza  ( Love his work, he simplifies truth)

Jared Kushner is very good at making news. The bad kind. For the T-RUMP White House, that is.  In a video interview with Time magazine released Tuesday, Kushner, the presidential son-in-law and jack of all trades at the White House, was asked whether there was any scenario he could imagine where the November 3 election would be postponed.

"That's too far in the future to tell," Kushner responded. "Nothing that I'm aware of now, but again, our focus right now is just on getting the country right--." Pressed on the matter, Kushner added this:

"It's not my decision to make, so I'm not sure I can commit one way or the other. But right now, that's the plan and again, hopefully, by the time we get to September, October, November, we've done enough work with testing and with all the different things we're trying to do to prevent a future outbreak of the magnitude that would make us shut down again. I really believe that once America opens up, it'll be very hard for America to ever lock down again."

Which, of course, is not “No, the election is going to be on November 3."   And which meant, of course, Kushner needed to issue a correction clarification -- and quickly. "I have not been involved in, nor am I aware of any discussions about trying to change the date of the presidential election," he said in a statement released Wednesday morning.
Clean up on Aisle Kushner!  

Here's the thing: Jared Kushner is getting very good at this by now. Because, well, he just keeps saying the wrong things. Let's take a jog down memory lane, shall we?

History Of Substantial Lies Just Like His Dad and In-Law Dad  —  “ We’re on the other side of the medical aspect of this,” Kushner said in late April of the COVID-19 pandemic. "We've achieved all the different milestones that are needed. The federal government rose to the challenge, and this is a great success story." At that point, more than 60,000 Americans had died from the disease. As of today, more than 88,000 people have died,with one influential model suggesting that number could reach 147,000 by early August.

Asked earlier in April why medical supplies from the federal stockpile weren’t being distributed to states that needed them, Kushner responded: “ he notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be state's stockpiles that they then use." ED: Excuse me …Who the f*ck are you, so far you are nothing but a displaced mini-f*ck spawned by a corrupt Dad and a corrupt Father In Law.  Your gene pool is nothing to talk about except in jail cells where you all belong…

The language on the Strategic National Stockpile website made clear that “when state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency.” In a plot right out of “1984," the language was changed following Kushner's "our stockpile" claim.

Amid nearly nationwide stay-at-home orders Jared and his wife Ivanka T-RUMP (and their three children) traveled from Washington, DC, to a T-RUMP property in New Jersey to celebrate the first night of Passover.  Earlier in the day, before heading to New Jersey, Ivanka had tweeted:  "Tonight we gather for a Passover without precedent. The group might be smaller, and the answer to “ Why is this night different' might be unusual".  But all across the world we shall sing our songs of freedom and together celebrate renewal.”  
ED: As a fellow Jew that was a lesson in Bullsh*t.  “  Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights”  is an allegory from the Jewish Passover Seder, in which a guest at the Seder, most normally the youngest, will ask the Ma Nishtana or the four questions.      No one else in the country could travel but they did was the correct answer, they were not so compliant.

As it relates to the idea of postponing the election, the key point here is that no one in the White House has the ability to do so. The date of the general election is governed by federal statute. This one, in particular:

"The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress commencing on the 3d day of January next thereafter."

Which means that the only way it can be changed is by Congress. And there's NO way that a Democratic-controlled House is going to do that. No. Way.  So, it's a moot point what Kushner thinks about the date of the general election. He has absolutely no say in it. Which is why he shouldn't have engaged in even the most remote speculation about whether the date might change. It won’t.  How will this latest gaffe impact Kushner's standing with Trump? If past is prologue, not at all! 

Following his comments about the “great success story” of COVID-19, Trump called Kushner a "genius."  Which, well, OK.  But T-RUMP has always relied on family -- and family alone -- to guide his professional and political choices. Which means that no matter how many times Kushner puts his foot in his mouth, he’s not likely to lose his prized perch at the right hand of the father-in-law.   What is most galling as the nation faces its worse crisis since World War II is how the T-RUMP family keeps demanding recognition for their brilliant work and also our thanks for the catastrophic mess, they have helped land us all in.

ED:  After all he is married to T-RUMPS daughter and even T-RUMP admitted if she wasn’t hid daughter he would jump on her bones…  SEE WhiteHouse PERVERT

Jared Kushner, who has fallen upwards throughout his life, inheriting a vast real estate empire and then making one of the worst purchases in the history of Manhattan, which was buying the office building 666 Fifth Avenue for a then-record $1.8 billion in 2007, a lemon which was only finally taken off his hands after his father-in-law became president.

So, perhaps it was only fitting that he was awarded the job of Shadow Secretary of State at the beginning of the T-RUMP administration.  Kushner was in charge of managing the US-China portfolio, a responsibility that drew criticism, given Kushner’s own business interests with China.

He also destroyed any vestige of American leadership in the Middle East with his promotion of the reckless Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his sabotage of the two-state solution in Israel.  And the murder of a renowned journalist which has drifted off the screen. 

According to officials cited by The New York Times, early on in the Covid-19 crisis, Kushner privately agreed with his father-in-law that this whole COVID-19 thing was being overblown by the “ lame stream” media.  Kushner then championed a new Google site where you could go and get your virus symptoms tested. His father-in-law touted 1,700 Google engineers who were working on the site at a White House news conference in March. If that sounds like a fantasy, it was.

And now, Kushner comes to Fox News, the Pravda of the T-RUMP administration, to marvel on Wednesday that the T-RUMP administration’s response to the COVID-19 is “  great success story,” claim that that “we have all the testing we need to start opening the country” and state his hope that " by July, the country's really rocking again."   

He was two almost three  months short and it went from 64,000 Americans lie dead — ( today 184,000)  more than the death toll of the Vietnam War — and more than  6,721,000 have been confirmed to have been infected with the virus with no end in sight. There is widespread agreement among experts that we don’t have the testing capabilities to return to any semblance of normal life and also that a second wave of infections could hit the country badly later in the year. We do not know how many have not been counted.

Today, we have a completely unreliable President -- anyone can get a coronavirus test, the virus will disappear when the warm weather comes, the list of Trump's whoppers goes on and on and on and on -- and his feckless son-in-law as coronavirus czar prattling on about bringing more private sector efficiency to government. Meanwhile, T-RUMP demands thanks from governors when he is just barely doing his job as president. 

This is the kind of thing we expect in a banana republic: the nepotistic incompetence and the demands from the public to lavish praise on the brilliant ruling family.   It would be laughable if there weren’t so many lives lost already and so many more in our future.  So, Jared Kushner, we, the American public, want to thank you for your service.

The message, time and time again, is that the rules are important and everyone needs to follow them — unless, of course, you are related to Trump, in which case you get to make your own rules.

As Michael D’Antonio, a Trump biographer, wrote way back in December 2016:  "Trump has long used manipulative techniques to get what he wants. These tendencies to shade the truth, break the rules and ignore the damage he does were apparent when he first made himself known as a publicity hound and developer in New York, and they continue to be an essential part of his character....

“Now, as President-elect, T-RUMP believes the standards accepted by other newly elected presidents out of respect for America’s political culture don't apply to him."  Obviously nor his family…Rules are, for T-RUMP and his family, things other people need to follow. They are Trumps and, therefore, immune to such pedestrian concerns as following the rules for normal people.

And it's not all that new for Ivanka Trump. If you follow her on social media — she’s an active presence on Instagram and Twitter — you immediately get the sense that she is trying to project herself as just an average person. here she is making time with the United Nations and getting their attention… 

Senator Ivanka T-Rump -2024

Speculation about the post-White House career of Ivanka T-RUMP is now centered on Florida, where the soon to be ex-first daughter and senior aide to her president father has reportedly bought an expensive plot of land for a house and may be considering a run for Senate.   Ivanka Trump is frequently mentioned as desiring a political career of her own and during her time working for Donald Trump has sought to position herself as a more media-friendly version of her father.

Now US media reports are focusing on Florida – where Donald T-RUMP owns the Mar-A-Lago resort – as a potential base for his daughter to launch a political career of her own.  “Ivanka definitely has political ambitions, no question about it,” a source told CNN. “She wants to run for something, but that still needs to be figured out.”

Florida might offer one potential avenue in a Senate race in 2022 when current Republican incumbent Marco Rubio’s seat is up for re-election. Rubio was a harsh critic of Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican nomination race but later morphed into a loyal supporter of Trump once he had the won election.

“I think she’d be the immediate frontrunner if she ran for US Senate against Rubio, given her father’s popularity in the Sunshine State,” Adam C Smith, former Tampa Bay Times political editor and now consultant with Mercury Public Affairs, told CNN.

Supporting the speculation are news reports that Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner – who has also been a prominent and influential member of the White House team for the last four years – are spending millions of dollars on a property in Florida that will serve as their future home base.

The New York Post reported that the pair are spending more than $30m on a land lot on Miami’s exclusive Indian Creek Island, which has been dubbed the “Billionaire’s Bunker”. The island reportedly boasts its own private police force for its handful of ultra-wealthy residences.

Ivanka Trump is not the only member of her family potentially eyeing up a political future post-Trump. Donald Trump Jr – who is popular with his father’s conservative base – is often seen as likely to make a serious bid to enter politics in his own right. Meanwhile, daughter-in-law Lara Trump has been mentioned as a potential candidate for the Senate in North Carolina.

T-RUMP MESSAGING

Wow!   What A Great Rack She Has…And She Knows How To Get Their Attention…

Street Language: What A Pair Of Knockers… Boobs Get Attention… At Parties, The

United Nations, Formal Dinners… Good Job Ivanka…

You get the idea. While her father’s brand publicly is being the best at everything,  and not at all like a normal person, Ivanka is heavily invested in convincing people that she is — really! seriously! -- not much different than them.   Sure, she's got a great job. And she's wealthy. And her dad is President. 

But really, you and she are actually more alike than you might think!   And her greatest assets are her two friends she share often with the world…  a real classy act… that great rack, other than those breasts, she is quite the dangerous one with her fathers personality… and no moral code other than power and money…

Interview With Axios
Does Jared Kushner know anything relevant to his White House role at all? Have any comprehension of the role of a public servant? See a purpose in his life other than elevating himself into ever-higher echelons of wealth and influence?

If you were going by his remarks in a recent interview with Axios, the answer would have to be no.

Kushner sputtered and spun, looking like a little boy dressed up in his father's suit, unable to give a definitive or direct answer to nearly every question asked of him. From abortion rights to Israel, Palestinians to the presidential campaign, Kushner served word salad. It was a rare and jarring look inside the mind of a cipher made suddenly and undeservedly powerful. What we saw:  A whole lot of nothing and the urgent takeaway: voters cannot squander the nation's upcoming opportunity to restore competence, stature and sanity to the White House.

Kushner’s interview would have been comical if this under qualified senior adviser didn’t have the ear of the leader of the free world, and didn't, absurdly, believe himself the right guy to advise on any number of matters -- including taking over the Middle East peace process.  

Just when you were wondering whatever happened to Jared Kushner, the White House adviser who got his job because his father-in-law is President, he popped up on an Israeli TV station on Monday to jab at the Democrat who may be on the ballot opposing President Donald T-RUMP in 2020. He said he’s been busy cleaning up “the messes” that former Vice President Joe Biden was supposedly responsible for creating related to the Middle East and criminal justice.  What a lying pr*ck this mini T-RUMP is…

Kushner's simplistic take sheds little light on the two issues he named, but illumination was not the point. No soundbite could ever help anyone understand the problems he pointed to. Instead, Kushner was obviously trying to distract us from the worsening impeachment crisis that had enveloped the administration, and to impress the Oval Office occupant.

President T-RUMP  who claims to cherish both family and fighting, should take some comfort in the fact that Kushner snarled. The Trumps have made politics, the presidency, and therefore impeachment, into a family affair and so Jared may feel a duty to perform. However, his comments also remind us that the stickiest aspect of the impeachment crisis involves Biden in a way that reflects very negatively on the Trump side.

Jared Kushner, who was less qualified than anyone except perhaps his wife on the day he was named to a White House post. This is a man who was born into enormous wealth, got into Harvard after his family pledged a $2.5 million donation, and only entered politics when his father-in-law declared he was running for President. 

Kushner’s born-on-third-base story of personal success may make him sensitive to any suggestion he has gotten more than he deserves. Biden said as much in an interview aired by the CBS News program 60 Minutes last Sunday. This poke likely inspired Kushner to strike back when he should have passed on the opportunity to draw more attention to the former Vice President. In doing so he may have pleased his father-in-law, but he gave more evidence to those who observe that he lacks the experience and wisdom for the job he holds.

He Comes From A Family Of Crooks Into a Family Of Crooks

Before that, Kushner had achieved little beyond a mediocre academic career, a massive real estate failure via his criminal dad’s company, and the decision to purchase a newspaper — The New York Observer — as a vanity project that he promptly ran into the ground.  It’s Gone…

This White House is such a pulsating example of unearned privilege (see here, here, here, here and here), that in a nation that prides itself on meritocracy and swears that those who work hard are rewarded, we see that it's also possible to be a rich dolt and still occupy one of the most powerful positions on earth. (In the case of Kushner's father-in-law, whose trajectory of failure and mediocrity landed him in the Oval Office, to occupy what may be the most powerful position on earth.)

Just how ignorant, middling and amoral is Kushner? The Axios interview offers some startling clues. Among them is that he manages to spin his utter incompetence as a good thing.  Asked by Axios’ Jonathan Swan to name the thing T-RUMP will be known for in 50 or 100 years, he replied, in part: 

He Knows More About The Murder Than He Lets On

This was par for the course in the interview. When confronted with inconvenient information -- like the fact that Kushner's friend Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ordered, the CIA has concluded, the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was living in the United States -- Kushner similarly hedged. (What is the administration waiting for to hold Mohammed Bin Salman accountable, he was asked? "I believe that there's a report that they're working on.")

He did the same on the question of whether he supports abortion rights: “ ‘  here to enforce his (Trump's) positions. His position is the one that as a staffer in the White House will work to push.")

There's an ongoing fiction that those around Trump are keeping this rig afloat, and that even if the President is small-minded and spends his days yelling at the television and tweeting, those around him are ably steering the ship.

The Kushner interview lays bare how false that is. Trump has put sycophants and loyal family members in influential positions over people who actually know what they're doing. The T-RUMP family idiots are the ones at the wheel.

We can't lose our ability to be shocked by how low this floor keeps dropping. And the influence of someone who is simultaneously profoundly clueless and ill-equipped for his job, and yet also self-admiring of his "outsider" status, is dangerous. Experience matters. Knowledge matters. Without it, we simply have a government of know-nothings — advising a President desperately in need of better angels whispering in his ear.  Actually a Walther PPK with a .380 hollow point would be a better idea and save the nation…

He’s Dangerous To Others

Add to the mix multiple power centers and an insecure, defensive son-in-law whose father was indicted by some of T-RUMPS legal Beagles now.  “Two people close to the transition also said a number of Trump’s most loyal campaign aides have been alarmed by Jared Kushner’s efforts to elbow aside anyone he perceives as a possible threat to his role as Trump’s chief consigliere.”

The picture DRAWN suggests an unhinged president, too many weak aides and an administration that cannot control itself, let alone coverage of its breakdowns. To repeat, nothing much of substance, certainly no major policy defeat, has yet occurred. One shudders to think what will happen when setbacks do occur.

Trump’s inability to acknowledge his own lack of support prompts him to seek refuge in “alternative facts” — to lie to himself and others. The Post reports, “Days after being sworn in, President Trump insisted to congressional leaders invited to a reception at the White House that he would have won the popular vote had it not been for millions of illegal votes … 

Two people familiar with the meeting said T-RUMP spent about 10 minutes at the start of the bipartisan gathering rehashing the campaign. He also told them that between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes caused him to lose the popular vote.” The obsession with replaying the election and concocting a phony excuse for losing the popular vote reminds us that despite mockery for constant lying, Trump cannot help himself. He lies because reality won’t conform to his narcissistic view of the world.

President Trump believes in Kushner’s talents so fiercely and unequivocally that he imagines him capable of out-maneuvering every foreign service officer at the State Department today and every bona-fide diplomat that has come before him.  he will screw up, he did and now talk of lying to Congress...

The second explanation is that the POTUS is thinking about the matter more realistically, and after considering the historical trajectory of America’s quest for a viable Mideast peace deal, has come to the sensible conclusion that his own prospects for success during the next four to eight years range from slim to none. Because he has no real expectation of resolving the conflict during the course of his tenure, he’s decided to get strategic.  Send the son in law.

It now an established fact that Jared Kushner has a problem following instructions and producing documents as requested by Congress.  Another Trump humpless individual, can’t even pass a security test with good reason...

Kessler’s New Book

Claiming his book contains many “juicy tidbits” about the White House, Kessler also said that Trump understands that Ivanka Trump and Kushner are “problems." 

In his book, Kessler writes: "In the end, Jared and Ivanka would push the most disastrous and foolish decisions of Trump's presidency ... they had no understanding of the basic fundamentals of how government works, how a campaign works, how politics works. Most of all, they had no understanding of the political consequences of their actions.” 

Kessler told Tapper that the pair "pushed the firing of Comey, which was disastrous," and were instrumental in the hiring of Anthony Scaramucci, the White House's former communications director, which Kessler called "the most absurd hire in the history of the White House." 

But Kessler said that although the President sees the two as "problems," it's unlikely that they, too, will leave the White House because firing family members would be an unusual move for T-RUMP.