Jared Kushner says he won’t be part of a second Trump administration
Former President Donald Trump listens to Jared Kushner in the Oval Office on Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh February 15, 2024
Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, said in a recent appearance that he has no intention of serving in a potential second Trump administration, citing his dedication to his business ventures.
“I’ve been very clear that my desire at this phase in my life is to focus on my firm,” Kushner, 43, said during a panel discussion at the Axios BFD conference in Miami on Tuesday. “I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity as a family to be out of the spotlight.” Though he said that “nothing in my life has gone according to the plans.”
Kushner, who married Trump’s daughter Ivanka in 2009, served as a gatekeeper for Trump during the 2016 campaign and later went on to serve as a senior advisor in the White House. There he spearheaded the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system and served as the point person on the Middle East and architect of the Abraham Accords.
Despite Kushner’s outsized role in the White House, Trump often diminished and mocked his son-in-law in private conversations, according to a memoir by New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman.
Kushner, who moved to Florida after the 2020 election and recently grew a scruffy beard, said Trump’s first presidential bid in 2016, running as an outsider, was more a “family campaign.” But he said that Trump, running for office now, works with a more skilled and disciplined team, and would have a “level of competence and professionalism” if elected as president.
A financial stake in the Middle East
Kushner attended Trump’s launch of the 2024 campaign at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, in November 2022. But Ivanka Trump was noticeably absent. “I love my father very much,” Ivanka wrote in a statement she shared on social media. “This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics.”
In the interview, Kushner also reflected on his dealings with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as they relate to the Middle East after the Israel-Hamas war ends.
His company, Affinity Partners, is backed by $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Just before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Kushner signed a more than $100 million equity deal in the country, believed to be the first Saudi-sponsored investment in an Israel company, according to Axios.
Kushner said his desire is “to double and triple down” on such investments. “I think that now more than ever, economic connectivity between the Gulf countries and Israel is very important,” he said. The Abraham Accords created “a human connection between a lot of people in both worlds.” Kushner added, “I think that things could have been much, much worse had the fabric created by the Abraham Accords not existed.”
Kushner said he’s optimistic that a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel is possible in the short term with U.S leadership and “the right leadership from Israel.”
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