Reports indicate that Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, is losing clout in the Trump White House. If so, that could be good news for defenders of religious liberty, as Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump, have repeatedly stalled and stymied efforts to bolster religious liberty. News reports on Friday alleged that Kushner tried to create a secret, secure channel of communication between Trump and Moscow last December.
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner may not be on his way out just yet, but appears to be losing clout with his father-in-law, President Trump.
Kushner, a real estate tycoon whose policy focus in the West Wing has been on technology and peace in the Middle East, is increasingly being viewed as a possible liability to the administration, already embattled in countless other public relations crises.
Kushner tried to create a secret, secure channel of communication between Trump and Moscow last December, according to a report published Friday.
That allegation may be one of the last straws for Trump and Kushner. The president has tried to distance himself from negative reports by pulling away from Kushner in private, but remaining warm in public, according to a new report in the New York Times. Trump even praised Kushner in a statement released Sunday night, just two days after the latest finding dropped.
“Jared is doing a great job for the country,” Trump said in a statement to the paper. “I have total confidence in him. He is respected by virtually everyone and is working on programs that will save our country billions of dollars. In addition to that, and perhaps more importantly, he is a very good person.”
But Kushner’s judgment in recent weeks has reportedly led his boss down a road of ridicule and tribulation. Kushner advocated for the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, telling Trump it would be a political “win” because Democrats had called for his departure. The termination ended up backfiring and was the beginning of a week the White House spent plagued in allegations over various incidents, including Trump’s firing Comey to end the federal investigation over Russia’s interference in the November election.
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