Trump’s chief of staff has clipped Kushner’s wings
WASHINGTON: At a senior staff meeting early in US President Donald Trump’s tenure, Reince Priebus, then White House chief of staff, posed a simple question to Jared Kushner: What would his newly created Office of American Innovation do?
Kushner brushed him off, according to people privy to the exchange. Given that he and his top lieutenants were paid little or nothing, Kushner asked, “What do you care?” He emphasized his point with an expletive.
“OK,” Priebus replied. “You do whatever you want.”
Few in the opening days of the Trump administration dared to challenge Kushner’s power to design his job or steer the direction of the White House as he saw fit.
But 10 months after being given free rein to tackle everything from the federal government’s outdated technology to peace in the Middle East, the do-whatever-you-want stage of Kushner’s tenure is over.
Kushner, the president’s sonin-law and senior adviser, has lately disappeared from public view and, according to some colleagues, taken on a more prescribed role behind the scenes. He is still forging ahead on a plan to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and he has been credited with focusing attention on the government’s technological needs. But he is no longer seen as the primary presidential consigliere with the limitless portfolio.
The new White House chief of staff, John F Kelly, has proved less permissive than his predecessor. Kelly has made clear that Kushner must fit within a chain of command. According to three advisers to the president, Kelly has even discussed the possibility of Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, departing the West Wing by the end of the year.
Kelly disputed that in an interview Friday. “There was honestly never a time when I contemplated getting rid of Jared and Ivanka,” Kelly said. He also said the Office of American Innovation, run by Kushner, had demonstrated its value, noting that he had recently sent some members of its team to Puerto Rico to report back on conditions on the hurricane-ravaged island.
And in an email forwarded by the White House, the president said Friday that he still relied on Kushner. “Jared is working very hard on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and the last thing I would ever do is get in the way of that possibility,” Donald Trump said.