The son-in-law as liability: Is Kushner Trump’s Fredo?
Kathleen Parker
The great thing about hiring family members: You can usually trust them more than others.
The really awful thing about hiring family members: You can’t fire them. Unless, of course, you’re Michael Corleone. Poor Fredo.
It’s no mere coincidence that “The Godfather” comes to mind when considering the nation’s first family and challenges therein. President Donald Trump, like Vito Corleone, has surrounded himself with family members, and for essentially the same reasons.
If you’re Trump, who can you really trust?
When you’re a real estate mogul with enough questionable paper to keep a cadre of lawyers in chauffeurs for life, you need the blood that binds as your innermost circle.
Hence, daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, the latter of whom turns out to be the latest person of interest in the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign.
Thus far, it’s been reported that Kushner sought a back channel of communication with Russia, which isn’t unusual in itself, though generally the president would work through the State Department or U.S. intelligence agencies.
Kushner, who, despite rumors to the contrary, is actually not the president, supposedly discussed the back channel with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. This meeting reportedly took place at Trump Tower in early December, which means that Donald Trump wasn’t actually the president either.
Thus, Kushner was acting as a private citizen. Stranger still, Kushner and Kislyak apparently discussed using Russian diplomatic facilities so that even our own intelligence agencies would remain in the dark. Might we remind dear readers that U.S. intelligence agencies are the ones on our team? Russian operatives, decidedly, are not.
Another Kushner meeting — with a Russian banker and close friend of Vladimir Putin — has also raised flags. Meanwhile, millions are wondering: Who is that masked man, Jared Kushner? And what are his qualifications for negotiating with our greatest geopolitical foe?
Often called the shadow secretary of state, little about him other than that he seems savvy in the ways of the paparazzi.
He seems determined to remain an enigma even as he appears to be in charge of everything from the Nile to the Volga. Not only does he have security clearance but he also receives his security briefings each morning.
In my shallow moments, I confess to the guilty pleasure of watching Jared and Ivanka as one would Prince William and Duchess Kate. But then I remind myself that the U.S. is not currently a monarchy, though this might be preferable to, say, a thugocracy. Or worse.
At the center of the storm, always, is Trump and the many still-unanswered questions about his and his aides’ relationships with Russia.
Kushner surely deserves a chance to explain his actions. Reportedly, he’s angry and eager to defend his reputation, but it may not be his that’s most at risk. As a senior adviser to the president, he has become a liability without family blood to protect him.
With Trump, as with the Corleones, loyalty is all. Without blood to bind him, what’s to prevent Kushner getting the boot? Under the circumstances, he might welcome an exit ramp, but he’d best steer clear of boat ramps.