It often seems like if there is an allegation against Donald Trump that Jared Kushner will somehow be intimately involved. The list is long and growing, but most famously includes the infamous Trump Tower meeting and post-election/pre-inauguration meetings with prominent Russians with ties to the Kremlin. One thing I thought Kushner was probably free of was dealings with David Pecker and the National Enquirer. I was wrong.
Shortly after the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was handed a task considered critical to the president’s operations. In addition to serving as a senior adviser in the White House, he would also be playing the role of the main conduit between Trump and his friend David Pecker, the National Enquirer publisher and chief executive of AMI, who prosecutors said on Wednesday admitted to making a $150,000 hush-money payment “in concert with” the Trump campaign.
During the early months of the Trump era, Kushner performed the task admirably, discussing with Pecker various issues over the phone, including everything from international relations to media gossip, according to four sources familiar with the situation. Pecker, for his part, bragged to people that he was speaking to the president’s son-in-law and, more generally, about the level of access he had to the upper echelons of the West Wing, two sources with knowledge of the relationship recounted.
Nonetheless, Kushner is on the short list to be the president’s next chief of staff, and it’s beginning to look like that list might be down to two people. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie took himself out of contention for the position on Friday which, according to Reuters, means that only Kushner and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer remain as contenders.
If Lighthizer has any sense, he will steer well clear of the Oval Office, and that will leave Kushner as the only option left for The Donald.
Trump poisons everything he touches, and he is `touching’ the country……and we are poisoned.
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Ten bucks says it’s the Mooch.
Wrong again …
Great guess, though!
I really thought I’d nailed this one.
Of course, I’m still expecting John Kerry to beat GWB …
there’s always Junior.
Frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t turned to Ivanka yet. I suppose if Jared is in, she will control him indirectly. But, he’s really reduced to having dinner with the secretaries in the Fuhrer Bunker by this point. His list of allies and supporters in Washington is running thin, even as he remains as popular as ever with the Trumpist base.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-staff-mulvaney-idUSKBN1OD2OP
Apparently CONned Budget Directory Mulvaney to be Acting CoS. Don’t know much about Mulvaney. Hope he’s got an escape plan, or maybe this is what he deserves.
I suppose Trump thought better of appointing Jared bc of, as discussed in this post, the many “things” he’s implicated in. However, the final appointment is yet to be made.
What an Administration. Lurching from one disaster to the next.
Wow!
Mulvaney has extra time now that he is not tasked with destroying the CFPB!
All the worst people! In wine making, there is a step called fining. Egg white is added to coagulate and precipitate all the solid materials that remain before the wine is bottled.
I have a dream that DJT and his criminal enterprise will be the fining agent for the Republican party!
*Banana Republican Party, successor to “GOP”
My mental image was of a septic tank, with scum at the top and sludge at the bottom.
Another winemaking term can also apply, Sur-lie, just leaving all the dregs in place where they fall out. When used injudiciously, you get putrefaction.
The Sur-Lie Philosopher
For the moment, at least, it is the Mick Mulvaney, the vermin that is OMB and the CFPB acting head. He is an ideologue. That doesn’t mean he can manage a maniac in the WH.
Once again Trump has to fill a vacancy in his administration by churning appointees, playing musical chairs with a dwindling pool of seat-fillers.
Can you say “death spiral”? I knew you could!
Mulvaney is a tea party bottom feeder, a toxic amalgamation of the worst aspects of “coach” Hastert and Gingrich, with a nasty streak rivaling that of Tom DeLay. He’ll be at home politically in Trump’s white house. But part of the job is having to kiss the gilded asses of Javanaka, and pretend not to notice that they are incompetent at every aspect of their supposed roles, with their only skill being grifting and backstabbing the nation 24/7. Putting up with that is a requirement of the job that even the most dedicated far right wing nut can take but for so long. But note that Mulvaney’s appointment is “acting.” The exit strategy is already built in, inherent in the job title.
At the rate Trump’s going, soon the only people left willing to work for him in that circus of a white house will be family; he may as well stop the bullshitting, put Ivanka in the role now and be done with it. Let her and Jared play house until Mueller comes calling for them.
WTF? Have we ever had an “acting” chief of staff? (leave aside the fact that since no one else will take the shit assignment it’s actually quite “permanent”).
Field Marshal Walther Model was known as the “Fuhrer’s Fireman” for being precipitously sent to every conflagration and collapse in the various fronts, so I guess that’s Mulvaney’s role in the criminal world of Trumpland as well….Mick Model?
Keep it in the family, Donald … it’s what a Godfather does lol
The news that an investigation has been launched on the Inauguration that is pointing directly at Ivanka’s role in the swindle just underscores that it’s more of a ‘is there anything the Kushners aren’t implicated in?’.
She’s in big trouble. Jared’s in big trouble.