The Transformation of Jared Kushner

Vicky Ward: “I have known Jared Kushner (not well) for quite some time. The man I first met in New York in the early 2000s was a cherubic-looking, vulnerable young man in his early 20s, openly hurting about the fact his father, whom he loved and revered, was in jail for a horrible, lurid crime involving a sex tape and blackmail of a family member. One couldn’t help but feel for this grieving son. Then when Kushner and Ivanka Trump temporarily split up, largely due to religious differences, he was also miserable, torn between religion and his soulmate. Again, one couldn’t help but feel for him.”

“Fast forward to 2016 and Kushner’s stint on Trump’s campaign as his son-in-law. When I sat down with him for the first time in many years while reporting a piece on him and his brother for Esquire, I saw a person entirely changed. The vulnerability was gone. This was a person who was not just condescending to journalists, but clueless about their motivation…. He had become someone who harbored grudges and delusions…. He had become someone who had an extraordinarily exaggerated sense of self-worth… He was someone who thought all problems could be massaged by PR. After all, he owned a newspaper.”

“And he was a bully. Or at least he tried to be.”