Jared Kushner’s Views On Foreign Affairs ‘Frightening’ To Diplomats
Jared Kushner Image by Department of Defense
By Aiden Pink January 3, 2018
A conversation with presidential son-in-law/senior adviser Jared Kushner left a senior European diplomat frightened because of Kushner’s foreign policy views, Politico reported.
The report cited a “leading European official who came to town last January looking for answers” about what the newly-elected President Trump’s foreign policy would look like.
The diplomat said that Kushner, who advises the President on Middle East peace and relations with Mexico and China (among other things), was “very dismissive” about the importance of the European-American alliance and the value of international alliances and institutions.
“He told me, ‘I’m a businessman, and I don’t care about the past. Old allies can be enemies, or enemies can be friends.’ So, the past doesn’t count,” the official recalled. “I was taken aback. It was frightening.”
The report also recounts that Trump’s decision last month to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was done over the objections of Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who both “begged” Trump not to do it, a “well-placed source who spoke with both men” told Politico’s chief international affairs columnist, Susan Glasser.
The report also provides insight into Trump’s Iran policy over the past year. A diplomatic source told Glasser that Trump’s repeated threats to walk away from the nuclear deal that Iran reached with the U.S. and other major world powers unless the Islamic Republic makes new concessions “is about leverage with Europeans.”
“His strategy is to freak out the Europeans like he freaked them out into paying more for NATO support of them,” the diplomatic source said.
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink
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