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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSalon: Jared Kushner is at the center of Trump's corruption
Jared Kushner is at the center of Trumps corruption
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/13/jared-kushner-is-at-the-center-of-trumps-corruption/
The speed and scale of Jared Kushners re-emergence cant be overstated. In the first year of Donald Trumps second presidency, his son-in-law is casually consolidating economic and political power with staggering speed. Kushner has positioned himself at the center of the biggest media merger in years and at the fulcrum of White House foreign policy, all while taking in multi-billion-dollar investments from autocratic governments.
On Monday, Paramount Skydance run by David Ellison, a billionaire Trump has openly urged to reshape the news industry in his favor launched an unprecedented bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery by initiating a hostile takeover after losing an earlier bidding contest to Netflix. Paramounts offer draws heavily from Kushners investment firm, Affinity Partners, and from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. These Middle Eastern autocracies are principal investors in an acquisition that would give them and Kushner influence over some of Americas most powerful news and cultural engines: CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures and the vast library of Warner content that shapes the national (and international) imagination. The partnership is unprecedented. Not even Rupert Murdochs right-wing media empire was capitalized by foreign monarchies seeking political leverage.
After leaving the first Trump administration, Kushner raised over $3 billion for Affinity Partners, including $2 billion from the Saudi governments Public Investment Fund. The Saudis own advisers reportedly warned Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Kushners record did not justify such an investment, but the crown prince overruled them. The UAE and Qatar soon followed, adding another $1.5 billion to the pot. As of late 2024, Kushner had still not produced meaningful returns for these foreign governments, yet he had paid himself at least $157 million in fees. Forbes now calls him a billionaire.
The breathtaking scale of the ParamountWarner bid makes the stakes even clearer. The sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar are collectively offering around $24 billion to help the takeover, more than the entire current market value of Paramount itself.
Irish_Dem
(79,716 posts)In Trump's first term, he is the one who sold the medical supplies during Covid
(paid for by the US taxpayer) to our enemies overseas.
And pocketed the money.
Miles Archer
(21,713 posts)Chris Christie clearly had high hopes about a cherry gig in Trump's first administration, which Kushner stepped on, because "he sent my daddy to prison," which is exactly where Charles Kushner deserved to be,
Then, Trump made him ambassador to France, most likely at Jared's insistence.
The one silver lining in it all, though, is that Princess Ivanka had visions of being the TOAST of New York's upper high society, the GUEST OF HONOR at the Met Gala, and...at the end of Trump's first term, New York essentially said "WE DON'T WANT YOU," and they had to console themselves with a $24 million Florida mansion.
It's funny...Kristi Noem said her shooting Cricket in the face proved she'd "do the things no one else was willing to do," and Kushner is the same...some people see the Saudis as global terrorists, the architects of 9/11, the kind of easy-going gents who dismembered Jamal Kashoggi with a bonesaw while he was still alive. Jared sees them as an ATM machine. "It's all about the Benjamins" with Kushner. No conscience, no morals, no scruples.
And the princess really isn't much better, with her sweetheart trademark deals for her products in China.
Irish_Dem
(79,716 posts)Daddy was a jail bird, father in law a psychopath.
Jared fits right in.
Jared not so smart, Daddy had to pay $2.4 million to Harvard to get Jared admitted under
a major donor program.
From the second Trump came down the escalator, Jared was all about monetizing the fan base.
Er, I mean the voters. All he could see were dollar signs.
During Covid Jared famously announced that all the medial equipment in the US belongs to him.
dalton99a
(92,051 posts)Big deals and small deals
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/world/middleeast/jared-kushner-saudi-arabia-arms-deal-lockheed.html
$110 billion Weapons Sale to Saudis Has Jared Kushners Personal Touch
May 18, 2017
Irish_Dem
(79,716 posts)We can only imagine the backroom deals.
Mossfern
(4,624 posts)didn't fall far from the tree.
Another shanda.
sop
(17,394 posts)2naSalit
(99,961 posts)Feel he is held to account until he is in a cell at The Hague along with his horrid spouse.
milestogo
(22,540 posts)and his sleazy grifter wife is too.
twodogsbarking
(17,569 posts)William Seger
(12,200 posts)gfarber
(200 posts)There once was a Kushner named Jared,
Whose comeback was brisk and quite torrid.
With a wink and a grin,
He strode back right within,
While the scale of it all left folks startled.
In Trumps sequel year, number two,
He accrued clout at record-breakthrough.
From the White Houses ear
To the markets so dear,
He was everywhere power might accrue.
At Paramounts table he sat,
With Skydance and Ellisons hat.
When Netflix said no,
They went hostile, you know,
A takeover aggressive as that.
From Riyadh to Doha they came,
With wealth funds and billions to aim.
CNN, HBO,
And the Warner cachet
Were the prizes that sweetened the game.
Not Murdoch, despite all his sway,
Had monarchs bankroll him this way.
Yet princes abroad
Pooled their cash, deeply awed,
For leverage in media play.
When Affinity Partners took shape,
Saudi billions escaped advisors tape.
Though returns were still thin,
Fees rolled steadily in
Now Forbes says hes rich by the scrape.
Some twenty-four billion on call,
From Abu Dhabi on down to Dohas hall.
More than Paramounts worth,
Theyre reshaping the earth,
While the speed of it all leaves jaws fall.
genxlib
(6,081 posts)After all, Eric and Don Jr. are raking it in too.
I am not even sure it is possible to be sure to really know the scale of their grift because so many of those transactions take place off the books.
And let's be clear, DJT doesn't need any of them to act in his place. He is perfectly capable of grifting at an enormous scale himself. The crypto BS alone puts the others to shame.
Let's just call it a four way tie as the worst in USA history with no one else even close enough to be called a 5th place runner up.