Jared Kushner set to move away from politics and
launch investment firm
Trump’s former adviser to launch firm in Miami,
sources say
Kushner to publish book next year about White House
role
Reuters
Thu 29 Jul
2021 00.33 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/28/jared-kushner-donald-trump-investment-firm-politics
Jared
Kushner, a top adviser to former Donald Trump, plans to launch an investment
firm in coming months, a move that will take him away from politics for the
foreseeable future, sources familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.
Kushner,
the former chief executive of Kushner Companies, who served as the Republican
president’s senior adviser in the White House, is in the final stages of
launching an investment firm called Affinity Partners that will be
headquartered in Miami.
Kushner,
who is married to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, is also looking to open an
office in Israel to pursue regional investments to connect Israel’s economy and
India, North Africa and the Gulf, said two people briefed on the plan, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
The sources
had no details about potential investors and said the firm was still in the
planning phase.
Kushner has
spent the last six months with his family in Miami writing a book about his
White House experiences that is expected to be published early next year.
Kushner
helped broker deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan
and Morocco in a six-month flurry last year. He also helped negotiate a new
US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Kushner
remains close with his father-in-law, the sources said, but by re-entering the
private sector he is stepping away from politics for the foreseeable future.
The
Republican party has been divided over the deadly attacks on the US Capitol on
6 January by Trump supporters, and Trump’s false claims that he beat Joe Biden
in the 2020 presidential election.
Kushner and
his family have been spending the summer as Trump’s next-door neighbor at
Trump’s golf property in Bedminster, New Jersey.
People
close to the former president say he is strongly considering another run for
the Republican nomination in 2024.
The Trump kids look likely to turn on their dad –
and I suspect Ivanka will go first
Arwa
Mahdawi
The former
president is not in immediate danger of jail, but his problems are piling up
fast. Not least the fact that, in his family, loyalty means nothing
Tue 6 Jul
2021 17.14 BST
Nothing in
life is certain except death and rich people jumping through complicated hoops
to avoid paying taxes. In case you needed any more convincing about the tax
side of that, please see the latest travails of the Trumps.
On
Thursday, the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen
Weisselberg, were charged with a “sweeping and audacious illegal payment
scheme” of tax-related crimes. While that may sound juicy, it is duller (but no
less devious) when you dig into the 15-count indictment. There is no smoking
gun, just mounds of details about company perks, such as payment of school fees
and rents that weren’t reported properly. Lots of grubby ruses that add up to
massive, and possibly illegal, tax savings.
Don’t
mistake a lack of style for a lack of substance, however. The devil – and
Donald Trump’s potential downfall – is in the detail. While it is unlikely that
Trump (who is not facing criminal charges yet) is going to jail imminently,
Thursday’s indictment may well mark the beginning of the end of his business
empire. That end will come sooner rather than later if Weisselberg, who has
worked for the Trump family for nearly 50 years, decides to turn against Trump
and cooperate with the investigation. So far, Weisselberg seems loyal, but that
could always change. Weisselberg’s family, it is worth noting, aren’t all as
pro-Trump as he is. Jennifer Weisselberg, his former daughter-in-law, has handed
over numerous financial documents regarding her ex-husband, who was also a
Trump Organization employee.
You think
the Weisselbergs sound dysfunctional? Wait until the Trumps start turning on
each other. It could be any day. On Thursday, Mary Trump, Donald’s estranged
niece, told the cable news host Rachel Maddow that she believes the former
president’s adult children won’t think twice before sacrificing their father to
save themselves. “His relationship with them, and their relationship with him,
is entirely transactional and conditional,” she said. “They’re not going to
risk anything for him, just as he wouldn’t risk anything for them.”
Trump’s
children, to be clear, haven’t been charged with anything yet. However, they
have a lot to be worried about. As Donald Trump’s biographer said recently, one
reason Weisselberg is in trouble is that he was allegedly paid as an employee
and a nonemployee contractor – allowing various tax write-offs. A New York
Times investigation reported that Ivanka Trump was similarly paid more than
$700,000 (£500,000) in consulting fees while also collecting a salary as a
full-time employee of the Trump Organization. It is likely Eric and Don Jr had
similar arrangements in place – we only know for sure about Ivanka because she had
to disclose the payments when she gave herself a job at the White House.
If any of
the Trump kids are going to turn on their dad, my money is squarely on Ivanka.
Indeed, she already seems to be distancing herself strategically from her
no-longer-particularly-useful father. A couple of weeks ago, for example, there
were reports that Trump’s complaints about the “stolen” 2020 election were
driving Ivanka and Jared Kushner away. These reported leaks about Javanka are
not new phenomena – they happened frequently throughout Trump’s presidency,
leading some to suspect it was a PR tactic by a couple keen to remain in the
good graces of liberals as well as the Maga crowd.
While
Ivanka appears to be coolly attempting to control her own narrative behind the
scenes, Donald Jr and Eric reacted to the Trump Organization criminal charges
by having histrionics on camera. Eric Trump told Newsmax last week that “Don,
Ivanka and I live really nice, clean lives”. Meanwhile, Don Jr posted a
13-minute video on Facebook calling the charges against his dad
“banana-republic stuff”. He also (rather unhelpfully) acknowledged that the
allegations Trump paid for Weisselberg’s grandchildren’s school fees were true.
“My dad did that,” he said, because he is a “good guy”. A “good guy” who
probably wishes he raised smarter kids. With children like these, who needs
enemies?
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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