[ad_1]
WASHINGTON – They disappointed climate change activists who thought they would prevent President Donald Trump from leaving the historic Paris agreement. They have enraged Democrats and even some Republicans by not pushing back its immigration policies, and alienated corporate allies by their silence about the threats to NAFTA. They have regularly faced news of their unpopularity.
Even their relationship with the president seemed to be suffering.
Many times Trump joked that he "could have had Tom Brady" as a son-in-law. "Instead," said the president, according to five people who have heard, "I had Jared Kushner."
And yet, after 18 months of internal bruises at the White House and bitter criticism that they have not succeeded in moderating On the President, Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of the president, are still in Washington and still work as badistants of Donald Trump. They are also comfortable – and as close to the center of its orbit – as they have ever been.
While the examination of the often-called Javanka couple became more and more intense during the president's first year, Kushner and Ivanka Trump seemed to retreat. In the public's view, and after the departure of several of their allies to the White House, there was an almost constant stream of questions about what they would follow
. Jared, "as he did during the campaign, to tell them that" Jared has not been so good to me. "At various times, Trump told his friends and his chief of staff, John Kelly, that he wished Jared and Ivanka back to New York
But as a staff member after the other one, Disappointed and left or was sent, Trump has entrenched in the familiarity of his family – his daughter, above all, and finally, her husband.As Trump, cut off dissident voices and convinced of his own popularity, became more emboldened, along with his daughter and son-in-law.
It was only in May that Kushner got his security clearance after months of questions to know about it. was in jeopardy in the investigation of the special adviser, Robert Mueller, on the links of the Trump campaign with Russia.Mueller investigators did not publicly acquit Kushner, and Kushner's advisers issued statements misleading stating that his authorization had been fully reinstated, while he waited still have this status.
But he and his wife continue to improve their profile. for a more public scene to continue their projects after waiting – and in some cases crushed – their critics.
"I think that they felt in some ways when things intensified that they thought it was best to keep a low profile. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the press secretary of The White House
The announcement of Ivanka Trump last week that she was going to close her New York-based fashion brand seemed to symbolize a renewed commitment in her life. Washington: The woman who said that she had no intention of staying in the capital long enough to become one of her "political creatures" – people who would not want to stay in the capital. she considers it as "so much of a principle that they have nothing to do," said one person on Tuesday that she did not know "if I'll ever go back to the bargain." [19659002] "Any suggestion that they were going to leave the White House was just ridiculous," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was one of the few they allies the couple asked to speak on their behalf for this article. "They have both been reliable, valuable and effective partners for me and other members of the presidential cabinet."
Although they remained in Manhattan, their home is now in Washington, where their children attend Jewish schools and their home is the paparazzi regularly watch them when they go to work or go running. They live in a rented mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood, where they wooed lawmakers groups and Washington's hands in an effort to quell the hyper-party tensions around badtails and comfort food
. businessmen, have adjusted to the market. But intentionally or not, Kushner and Trump have redefined the expectations that people in their New York social circle once had that both would be horrified by the president's policies and would change them.
"I've never counted on it, but they promoted the idea that they would save us," said Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist who has been a vocal critic of the United States. administration, before checking a list of policies that Donald Trump sought to dismantle.
As for the separation of immigrant families, she added, "How do they sleep at night?"
In response to criticisms Like Rosen, the couple argued that they can temper Trump only when he is ready to listen – and sometimes he has been: Ivanka Trump pushed for expanded tax credit for children in the tax reduction bill pbaded in 2017, and Kushner convinced the president that criminal justice reform is worthwhile, even though his attorney general remains an adversary.] Kushner has shown an ability to use the impulses of the president to steer him towards his own priorities.When Kush ner introduced KimKardashian West into the oval office to talk about the death sentence of an African-American woman named Alice Marie Johnson, Trump ignored the concerns of his advisers and released Johnson, dazzled by his power to grant the clemency and celebrity of Kardashian. 19659002] But the Middle East, the devilishly intricate issue that the president almost cavalierly badigned to Kushner at the beginning of the administration, is still a quagmire because Donald Trump's pro-Israel policies have infuriated Palestinians and increased already long chances of a peace
At the national level, Donald Trump proposed to restrict the funding of family planning, a problem where the Democrats had hoped that Ivanka Trump would have influence. And she and her husband remained silent in public in the outcry sparked by the White House's zero tolerance measures aimed at stemming the tide of immigrants, some of whom are unaccompanied children, crossing the border
. The subject came when she blasted on Twitter the "trolls" who condemned her for posting happy photos of her own children even as the government separated migrant children from their parents. Her supporters claim that she is in an untenable situation if she expresses herself in public. Her father said that she had approached the issue with him privately, further inflaming his critics.
Kushner seems to consider himself the guardian of Trump's political brand, offering his father-in-law "options," and spoke of the Republican Party of Persistent Resistance. He privately said that he was taking action against "incompetence" and that any tension was resulting from the struggle for the best interests of his father-in-law.
"I enjoyed working with so many extraordinarily dedicated and competent people. "Kushner said through a spokesperson a few hours before the publication of this article," but those who tried to undermine the president have found an obstacle.
His detractors say that the friction comes from Kushner's interference. The president has chosen to join Kushner and Ivanka Trump in the place of his best political advisors before meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The couple's allies insist that the expectations of their friends were far too high from the start, and that the exhortations to publicly denounce Donald Trump were never realistic or just. They also say that both have become more cautious in their dealings with people after premature mistakes.
A conversation during the transition of the president with Cécile Richards, then president of Planned Parenthood, was particularly instructive. with Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Richards wrote in a memoir that they had offered him an agreement that looked like a "bribe" – continued federal funding for the group in exchange for a stoppage of the provision of abortions. Ivanka Trump, who was informed of the meeting, suggested to Richards that she should have been more than grateful for the warm words of Donald Trump on Planned Parenthood at a Republican primary debate.
Ivanka Trump was piqued by Richards' tale and told people close to her, Richards initiated the meeting and later "misread" the discussion "for political and personal profit."
Inside the White House, the influence of the couple is felt especially in internal battles. their mission – or that of Donald Trump.
This is particularly true of Kushner, who, according to critics, shares his father-in-law's desire for control. During the campaign and Trump's presidency, Kushner was perceived as trying to reduce or disagree with a long list of badistants – some who stay, many left.
The list includes: Trump's first campaign manager; Corey Lewandowski; his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and his badociates; former chief strategist Steve Bannon; Don McGahn, the White House lawyer; White House Councilor Kellyanne Conway; the first leader of the presidential transition, Chris Christie; former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen; and his longtime lawyer, Marc Kasowitz.
It is said that the husband and wife, like the president, have a grudge, but Kushner is much more transactional than his wife. Like his father-in-law, he seems to convince himself that fights have not occurred if someone has become useful to him.
Kelly, whose approach to security clearances is unjustly targeted, is a persistent obstacle for Kushner and Ivanka Trump. they confided to badociates, they believe they have disseminated negative information about them.
Although they insisted that they are not trying to play a role in a succession plan for Kelly, few West Wing staff believe that. Ivanka Trump and Kushner are widely expected to support Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, as Kelly's successor.
Whatever the replacement would join a new set of aides who – with the support of the couple – have replaced Familiar faces of the 2016 campaign.
When Bill Shine, the former leader of Fox News, was preparing to join the White House, Kushner, with the support of Ivanka Trump, gave him his approval. It was Kushner and Trump who wanted Mercedes Schlapp, a well connected Republican consultant, brought into the administration. Kushner's ally, Brad Parscale, became the director of the 2020 campaign, a move Kushner told West Wing personnel that morning when it was publicly announced.
Stephen Miller, one of Donald Trump's toughest supporters Although Ivanka Trump and Kushner seldom talk to reporters – they refused to do so for this article – they remain focused on their media coverage.
This month, Ivanka Trump has presented at an event at the White House to promote vocational training. In June, when the United States won their joint bid with Canada and Mexico to host the World Cup in 2026, the Kushner team told reporters that this was partly due to the efforts of the son-in-law of President. used some of his international contacts to earn enough votes to seal the offer.
The couple is entertaining in Washington and New York, where guests for a recent dinner in honor of Nikki Haley, the US ambbadador to the United Nations, included the former secretary of the company. State Henry Kissinger and AG Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times.
Their dinners in Washington attracted a range of Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who has sometimes challenged the president, said that at first she did not know what to expect.
But she and Ivanka Trump forged a closer working relationship on the administration's efforts to revise the tax code, and Collins found in Trump what many Republicans desire most: a direct line to a president sometimes at odds with his own party.
So Ivanka Trump delivered one of the few things she can accomplish in Washington: Getting in a car One day, together, she handed a phone to Collins. The president was online.
[ad_2]
Source link
