Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are house hunting in Washington as they look to move from New York City to D.C., CNN has learned.
“The couple’s planned move with their three children reflects the expectation that Kushner will serve as an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump in some capacity, though the precise role — potentially complicated by nepotism laws — remains to be seen.”
“Just wanted you to know that I am thinking of you and wishing the best. For what it’s worth, I thought the move you pulled was kind of badass.”
— Jared Kushner, in a 2013 email to David Wildstein obtained by the Washington Post, amid growing evidence that Wildstein had ordered the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge to payback Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) political enemies.
“Newt Gingrich voiced support for the idea that President-elect Donald Trump could tap his son-in-law to revamp peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians. But he cautioned that a decades-old nepotism law could require Trump get a waiver for Jared Kushner,” Politico reports.
Said Gingrich: “I think they would have to get a waiver to the anti-nepotism law. That might be a little tricky, although I think if they worked at it, they could do it.”
Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is talking with lawyers about how he can legally join the administration, the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Kushner has consulted with at least one lawyer and believes that by forgoing a salary and putting his investment fund, his newspaper (The New York Observer) and his real estate holdings into a blind trust that he would not be bound by federal anti-nepotism such rules.”
“Still, it is not clear that such an arrangement would be legal. Under federal statute, the president cannot accept voluntary services that are not permitted by law, and a separate statute bars public officials from employing family members in any capacity.”
“Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who became a close adviser in the presidential campaign, is likely to take a top White House job,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Jared Kushner, who has emerged as a lightning rod as departures have mounted in recent days from the team vetting possible appointees, is being pushed to join the president’s inner circle by new White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and presidential counselor Stephen Bannon… Mr. Kushner is regarded as Mr. Trump’s eyes and ears inside the evolving presidential transition… The 35-year-old Mr. Kushner would have a role in the White House along the lines of senior adviser or special counsel.”
“Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has informally approached one of the media industry’s top dealmakers about the prospect of setting up a Trump television network after the presidential election in November,” the Financial Times reports.
“Mr Kushner — an increasingly influential figure in the billionaire’s presidential campaign — contacted Aryeh Bourkoff, the founder and chief executive of LionTree, a boutique investment bank, within the past couple of months, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.”
“The real campaign manager, in fact, the entire time, has been Jared Kushner, who is still the real campaign manager, even today.”
— A Trump adviser, quoted by the New Yorker., on Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
New York Times: “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.”
“It is a new and unlikely role for Mr. Kushner, a conspicuously polite Harvard graduate whose prominent New Jersey family bankrolled Democrats for decades and whose father’s reputation was destroyed, in a highly public and humiliating manner, by his involvement in electoral politics.”
“Now, in a Shakespearean turn, Mr. Kushner is working side by side with the former federal prosecutor who put his father, Charles Kushner, in prison just over 10 years ago: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, whom Mr. Trump named as a top adviser.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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