Hit the road, Jared

Senior White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, in charge of a massive portfolio ranging from government reinvention to relations with China and Mexico to Mideast peace, can no longer credibly serve the American people. This week, after more than a year of Kushner working under a provisional top-secret clearance, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly downgraded his status. As a result, he can no longer read the highly sensitive President’s Daily Brief, much less learn about classified details on world affairs. It had to come to this. Kushner revised his financial disclosure forms multiple times to address “inadvertently omitted” assets; other forms were updated after the press revealed forgotten preelection meetings with, yes, Russian officials.

A Washington Post report suggests another area in which Kushner is already compromised: Officials in at least four countries — including the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico — privately discussed how to manipulate Kushner via his business contacts, heavily leveraged realestate assets and foreign policy inexperience.

Simultaneously, the New York Times reported that following Kushner meetings with a private equity billionaire, loans began flowing to Kushner’s debt-laden family company within weeks.

Before Donald Trump became President, strong anti-nepotism and conflict-of-interest rules governed the White House, and Congress showed an interest in enforcing them.

Kushner reminds us why.