Where's Master Jared? Solving The COVID Crisis!

The Daily Beast is inquiring as to the whereabouts of jackass-of-all-trades and consort of Princess Ivanka, Master Jared Kushner these days:

"Over the past two weeks, Kushner has been notably removed from coronavirus-related operations, according to four officials working in coordination with his team. One official working in the White House said it was 'unclear' exactly what he and his team had actually done over the last two weeks. Another individual familiar with Kushner’s work said they hadn’t received updates from his team in 'about a week.'  [snip] 

'He muddied up a process that was really not needing a fix,' said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. 'What that does is disempower FEMA because if at any moment Jared or one of his henchmen demand assets to be redistributed at their discretion, FEMA’s planning gets disrupted. I’ve never seen operations on something this scale being run out of the White House...'  [snip] 

'[Jared] could be in his office just googling ‘coronavirus,’ show the results to the president, and still get a gold sticker from his dad-in-law,' said a senior Trump administration official who works with the coronavirus task force. 'He is solving the coronavirus like he’s bringing peace to the [Middle East].'”  (our emphasis)

Aside from demonstrating how much the nepotistic Master Jared (and Princess Ivanka) are deeply despised and resented by Trump's own staff in the White (Supremacist) House, these sentiments are a reflection on the incompetent and flailing Dear Leader, who has assigned his inexperienced, but cocky, son-in-law to meddle in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Master Jared is a classic trust fund dilettante who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. He should go back to bringing peace to the Middle East, or reorganizing Government, or supervising construction of Trump's vanity wall. Anything but this life-or-death issue.

BONUS:

If only there was a federal government task force headed by the presidents slumlord son in law. https://t.co/ppDvv73CtA

— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) April 27, 2020

(photo: Undisclosed location? Kevin Dietsch/CNP)

The Grift Goes On

Financial disclosure statements from First Lady corrupt nepotist Ivanka "Complicit" Trump indicate that she pocketed $3.9 million from her share in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. At the same time, she earned $5 million from her personal branding business, all the while being a "senior advisor" to her father, con man and demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump. She and her husband, Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner have agreed to abide by Federal ethics laws, despite not divesting of their private business interests.

Both Kushners frequently travel to foreign nations ostensibly to represent the U.S., but secure business deals in their wake. For example, Kushner received a $30 million loan from Minora Mivtachin, an Israeli financial company, shortly before visiting Israel in May 2017. Kushner's business dealings are under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, following reports that after Kushner's father had been denied a loan by Qatar, the Rump regime turned against Qatar in it's dispute with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Kushner is also suspected of using his position in the White House to get favorable treatment for his family's troubled real estate business.

Most recently, "Complicit" was granted 13 trademarks by China in a three month time span, allowing her to market numerous branded products in China to hundreds of millions of consumers. The speed and breadth of the trademark approvals raised questions about improper influence due to her nepotistic government position. The attempt by Rump to save Chinese telecom giant and sanctions violator ZTE from bankruptcy (and therefore obtain a $500 million Chinese investment in an Indonesian project of Rump's organization) was likely part of the expedited trademarks. The Senate has rebuffed Rump's ZTE agreement as part of the National Defense Authorization bill,  but the Trumpist House has yet to act.

This is, far and away, the most corrupt administration in U.S. history, and if a small fraction of their corruption were on a Democratic President's watch, that President would have been impeached and removed long ago. Party over country.

The Pocket Princeling

It would appear that Trump crime family princeling Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner has a cozy new address (allegedly!):

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly bragged about having White House senior counsel Jared Kushner “in his pocket” and may have used highly sensitive intelligence from the President’s Daily Briefing in his violent crackdown on dissent in Saudi Arabia, The Intercept reported Wednesday. 

Three sources told The Intercept that Kushner had revealed names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince. 

“The Saudi figures named in the President’s Daily Brief were among those rounded up; at least one was reportedly tortured,” The Intercept explained. 

Mohammed bin Salman also was said to have told UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed that Kushner was “in his pocket.” 

Kushner communicates with both the Saudi and Emirati crown princes via Whats-App. A source claims that Kushner’s lawyers have since told him not to use the app for government business.  (our emphasis)

The crime family's callow princeling's main charge from his dimbulb father- in- law has been to "bring peace to the Middle East." How living in the pocket of a Saudi despot achieves that remains to be seen. But it certainly would make sense if your main purpose was to advance business opportunities for your family ("pay for peace"?).

Kushner reportedly also maintains residences in the pockets of Russian thug Vladimir Putin and Israel's kindred Trumper Bibi Netanyahu.

We eagerly await Special Counsel Robert Mueller lowering the boom on the princeling for his involvement in Russian cyber meddling in the 2016 election, though if he ends up in Mueller's pocket, it would be as a cooperating witness.

BONUS:  Retired Army four star Gen. Barry McCaffrey no doubt reflects the views of many in the diplomatic corps:

“Putting Jared Kushner, a 30-something person with no foreign policy experience or defense policy experience, as a leading representative of the United States is simply outrageous,” McCaffrey told MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes.” [snip] 

“It just has no precedent, in my view, in American government in modern times,” McCaffrey added. “This is the personalization of a family business dealing with U.S. policy.”

Enlisting the U.S. Government in developing your crime family business might not turn out to be such a good career move, eh?

(Photo:  The princeling and his host)

Pity Princess Ivanka...

She can't get "daddy" to listen to her sage advice, so lower your expectations people!

Ivanka Trump: It's "unrealistic" to expect me to influence my father https://t.co/Tm4HV9vXkz pic.twitter.com/x1KG97EpxY

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) September 14, 2017

Random reactions to the Princess:

Your job is literally to advise him. https://t.co/rLyTKC6wFo

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) September 14, 2017

Shorter Ivanka: Not born great, not of great achievement, and unwilling to have greatness thrust upon her. https://t.co/z9FUYMwqxc

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) September 14, 2017

It's unrealistic to ask Ivanka Trump to do her job as White House Advisor? https://t.co/H71OVw5YrZ

— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) September 14, 2017

Oh honey, bless your heart but you are the noise. https://t.co/hdL1r2l1GF

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 14, 2017

The Trumpanov Saga Continues

They're resembling the Russian Romanovs so much, perhaps they should be called the Trumpanovs. The surging, royal family-like nepotism under unstable sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump hit a new level when it was reported that Rump son-in-law and prince consort Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner will head Rump's efforts to "reorganize" the Government. Kushner, who was conveniently off skiiing in Aspen last week as the Trumpcare bill went down in ignominious flames, has been serving as one of Rump's "advisors." Just last week, Rump's daughter/substitute First Lady Ivanka "Complicit" Trump was given her own office in the West Wing with access to classified materials, and apparent carte blanche to sit in on any and all meetings with foreign leaders.

In Kushner's case, there is the little problem of his continued ties to his family's real estate development business and specifically a suspiciously favorable potential deal with China's Anbang conglomerate to invest in a struggling Kushner family property in Manhattan that could earn $400 million for the Kushner company. Senate Democrats have asked the White (Supremacist) House for an explanation of Kushner's role in the potential deal.

In addition, there are reports that Kushner will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding the Rump campaign's collaboration with Russia during and after the elections. Kushner met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower in December, along with disgraced Russian tool Michael Flynn, and separately in the same month with the head of a Russian bank that's been sanctioned by the U.S. over Russia's annexation of Crimea. Hopefully, with good questioning under oath, Kushner will provide previously undisclosed information that will be useful to the investigation.

As with the Romanovs, the arrogant, presumptuous Trumpanovs may feel that they can do anything as "rulers." The Romanovs found out the hard way that that's not how to survive. The Trumpanovs may be just as impervious to reality, too.

BONUS: As an aside, the WaPo article linked to above is a marvelous example of access- driven journalism, with "reporters" Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker dutifully using such ripped- from- the- White- House- news- release lines as "harvesting ideas," "a nimble power center," "a SWAT team of strategic consultants," and "infuse fresh thinking," to describe the concept and workings of the "Office of American Innovation" ("innovation!"). Democracy dies in pandering bullshit, too.

Meanwhile, as Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog notes, the group is top heavy with plutocrats such as Goldman Sachs veterans Gary Cohn and Dina Powell, and corporate types like Chris Liddell (Microsoft, GM) and real estate scion Reed Cordish. Why do we suspect the "innovations" will end up being innovative ways for corporations to avoid taxes and screw workers (i.e., "the Trump Model")?

BONUS II:  This --

Jared's workload: 15% Middle East, 5% Mexico, 10% China, 2% supervising Tillerson, 10% gov as biz, 58% spinning media to appear as good guy.

— Jorge Guajardo (@jorge_guajardo) March 27, 2017