The Quiet Fixer in Donald Trump’s Campaign: His Jewish Son-in-Law, Jared Kushner
nytimes.com
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A 35-year-old real estate developer, investor and newspaper publisher, Mr. Kushner derives his authority in the campaign not from a traditional résumé but from a marital vow. He is Mr. Trump’s son-in-law.
Yet in a gradual but unmistakable fashion, Mr. Kushner has become involved in virtually every facet of the Trump presidential operation, so much so that many inside and out of it increasingly see him as a de facto campaign manager. Mr. Kushner, who is married to Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, helped recruit a sorely needed director of communications, oversaw the creation of an online fund-raising system and has had a hand in drafting Mr. Trump’s few policy speeches. And now that Mr. Trump has secured the Republican nomination, Mr. Kushner is counseling his father-in-law on the selection of a running mate.
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Much about the Trump candidacy seems at odds with Mr. Kushner’s personality and biography: An Orthodox Jew and grandson of Holocaust survivors, Mr. Kushner is now at the center of a campaign that has been embraced by white nationalists and anti-Semites.
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In many ways, he has filled a vacuum in a startlingly small organization that has had no official manager since the June ouster of Corey Lewandowski, which Mr. Kushner advocated, and that has fallen far behind in building a 50-state campaign. But his real power, his friends said, stems from his close relationship with Mr. Trump, who has long preferred the advice of family over political professionals and who sees in Mr. Kushner a younger version of himself.
“Jared is an amazing son-in-law, and we are very close,” Mr. Trump said in a statement, describing him as “a big and bold thinker.”
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“My father looked at the deals Jared was doing and saw himself in those deals,” Ms. Trump said.
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For months, he was more loyal son-in-law than campaign operative, his role mainly confined to standing alongside the candidate and making calls to potential advisers and donors.
It was in March, after Mr. Trump inflamed Jewish leaders with an improvised vow to remain “neutral” in dealings with Israel and Palestinians, that Mr. Kushner emerged as an unchallenged force in the campaign.
He worked the phones to placate angry Republicans and urged Mr. Trump to deliver a pre-written, unequivocally pro-Israel speech in front of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the influential lobbying group known as Aipac. Mr. Kushner even solicited advice from Mr. Kurson, the Observer editor.
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Mr. Kushner seems to relish the privileges that his status as Mr. Trump’s son-in-law carries. In May, when Mr. Trump met with Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state, Mr. Kushner tagged along.
No detail seems too small. Mr. Kushner has become involved in curating videos on Mr. Trump’s Facebook page, reviewing programming for the Republican convention and retooling the online store where Trump hats, T-shirts and mugs are sold.
Donors, policy experts and Republican leaders regularly reach out to him as a gatekeeper to the candidate. And with increasing frequency, Mr. Trump turns to Mr. Kushner throughout the day for feedback.
“I’ve been with Jared and the phone will ring, and it will be Trump soliciting Jared’s opinion,” Mr. Kurson said.
Mr. Kushner does not always wait for Mr. Trump to call. He pushed behind the scenes, along with Mr. Trump’s three oldest children, for the dismissal of Mr. Lewandowski, a polarizing figure who had overseen Mr. Trump’s primary campaign and begun to see Mr. Kushner as an internal rival.
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But not entirely. Mr. Kushner, whose dimpled cheeks and baby face are a fixture of society pages, has embraced the trappings of a mogul. He moved with his wife into a penthouse of a Trump-branded tower on Park Avenue and courted the friendship of Rupert Murdoch, the founder of Fox News, whose young daughters were flower girls at Mr. Kushner’s wedding to Ms. Trump.
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Now, between flights with Mr. Trump and the flurry of campaign calls and meetings, Mr. Kushner is devoting far less time to his real estate empire.
His father-in-law, whose own eyes have been known to drift away from real estate, seems to approve.
“Despite his great business success,” Mr. Trump said in a statement, “he has the right priorities — family first.”
