Among the unique qualities of the Trump administration is the fact that the president has placed his daughter and son-in-law in positions of power within the White House, sparking cries of nepotism that have not yet culminated in Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner actually leaving D.C.
Now, however, there is a report out from the Associated Press about just how precarious of a position that Jared and Ivanka might be in.
Jared Kushner himself has been in the news recently for less than optimal reasons, having had his security clearance downgraded in the wake of a scandal over how Rob Porter, former White House staff secretary, was ever able to get his security clearance, seeing as he’s credibly accused of domestic violence. Now, Kushner can’t even access all of the information that might be necessary to complete the tasks that have in theory made him relevant in D.C. up until this point.
That’s not all, though. According to the AP, White House chief of staff John Kelly, who has long been seen as seeking to maintain a semblance of order within the West Wing, is reportedly over Jared and Ivanka’s freewheeling within the White House.
According to the outlet, Kelly “has been angered by what he views as the couple’s freelancing.” According to two sources, the chief of staff also “blames them for changing Trump’s mind at the last minute and questions what exactly they do all day.”
In turn, according to the same report, Jared and Ivanka are understood by some insiders to perceive Kelly’s reforms of the way security clearances are handled as a “direct shot at them.”
Among the things that Jared has been tasked with during his time in his father-in-law’s administration are bringing peace to the Middle East and reforming the federal government to make it more efficient. He has not had significant success on either front, with such unsurprising in at least the case of his aim to bring peace in the Middle East. The odds that a private businessperson with essentially no diplomatic or political experience is going to be able to bring peace to the Middle East are slim.
In addition to the basic challenges that Kushner has been faced with, he’s also been faced with questions associated with both the Russia scandal and his family’s businesses.
In the case of the Russia scandal, he’s participated in a number of questionable meetings with Russian interests, including the infamous 2016 meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected lawyer promised to bring dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Ivanka Trump, on the other hand, has worked in roles including serving as the public face of efforts to enact tax reform and efforts to enact paid family leave — although a recent version of her plan for the latter drew wide criticism. The plan consisted of having American workers use up some of their Social Security savings for the paid family leave.
Topping off Ivanka and Jared’s problems is the fact that the AP reports that they’re even struggling to hang onto the president’s support, with him having “griped about the wave of bad headlines generated by probes into Kushner’s business dealings and the status of his security clearance, according to two people familiar with the president’s thinking.”
Were they to leave the Trump administration, they would hardly be the first high profile officials to do so. Among recent departures is that of longtime Trump adviser and White House Communications Director Hope Hicks.
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