Playing Both Sides

For my upcoming book, United States of Oligarchy, I spent the last few years reporting on the activities of a small group of billionaires who have amassed increasing sway over US politics and policy. Chief among them, of course, is Elon Musk, who used a small fraction of his enormous wealth to put Donald Trump back in the White House, a political investment that has paid off in spades. But another player milking his proximity to Trump for personal gain is the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who, as I show in this Mother Jones excerpt, has parlayed his official role as America’s top diplomat into massive personal wealth. Kushner’s gilded, hapless journey to billionaire-dom, much like the explosion of oligarchic wealth in America, didn’t begin recently, but stretches all the way back to the 1980s. Behold some highlights.

1981: Jared Kushner is born in Livingston, New Jersey.

1990s: Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Kushners’ New Jersey home, reportedly sleeping in Jared’s bedroom and shooting hoops with him in their driveway.

1999: Kushner, no academic standout, enters Harvard. He was accepted after his father, Charles, pledged $2.5 million, to be paid after Jared’s matriculation.

2005: Charles Kushner gets two years in prison after pleading guilty to 18 counts of tax evasion, illegal campaign donations, and witness tampering, he hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, a tryst he secretly filmed and sent to his sister.

2006: Kushner buys the New York Observer for $10 million, money he says he earned doing real estate deals during college. He reportedly goes on to order “hit jobs” against family foes.

2007: Kushner Companies buys 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion, nearly all borrowed, the most ever paid for an NYC office tower.

Owner Jared Kushner attends the New York Observer and IFC Films premiere of Factotum in New York in August 2006.Peter Kramer/Getty

2008: Mortgage meltdown: Kushner sells a 49 percent stake in the building’s retail space for $525 million.

2009: Kushner marries Ivanka Trump in “lavish” ceremony, complete with Regis Philbin crooning, at a Trump golf club.

2010: 666 Fifth Avenue is appraised at $820 million, less than half what the Kushners paid.

2011: Occupancy at 666 Fifth Avenue plummets; in a refinance bid, Kushner Companies sells off a nearly 50 percent stake in its office space.

2011, 2013: Kushner’s family donates to multiple foundations that support West Bank settlements.

2015: Kushner negotiates with Qatari Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani (HBJ), former head of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, seeking his personal $500 million investment in 666 Fifth Avenue.

2016: Kushner helps run his father-in-law’s presidential campaign. After Trump is elected, UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan cancels a meeting with President Barack Obama to meet with Kushner instead; Russian official Kirill Dmitriev sets out to make Kushner a Kremlin asset.

January 2017: Trump sworn in; Kushner becomes a senior White House adviser but retains the vast majority of his interest in Kushner Companies; he also forms a back-channel personal relationship with Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), including trips to Riyadh and private texting sessions.

President Donald Trump is joined by congressional leaders and family, including Kushner, as he signs his Cabinet nominations in the President’s Room of the Senate on January 20, 2017.J. Scott Applewhite/DPA/Zuma

March 2017: 666 Fifth Avenue refinancing scuttled amid concerns over Kushner’s conflicts of interest; HBJ pulls out.

April 2017: Charles Kushner lobbies Qatari government to invest in 666 Fifth Avenue. No dice.

May 2017: Kushner discusses a blockade of Qatar, designed to weaken Iran, with Saudi and Emirati officials.

They Went to Jared

How Donald Trump’s son-in-law used his position to hop in bed with autocrats, and sell out America.

June 2017: Qatar blockade brings Gulf to the brink of war. According to Kushner biographer Vicky Ward, Qataris interpret the move as Kushner saying, “If you don’t pay my father, the Americans are going to sanction an invasion of your country.”

August 2017: 666 Fifth Avenue still flailing. Vanity Fair asks, “Is Jared Kushner the World’s Worst Real-Estate Investor?”

February 2018: The Washington Post reveals that multiple countries have discussed manipulating Kushner via financial entanglements.

Kushner Companies’ albatross, the highly leveraged building at 666 Fifth Avenue that left the family scrambling to cover its massive loan paymentsDrew Angerer/Getty

March 2018: MBS bragged to UAE leader that he has Kushner “in his pocket,” the Intercept reports.

April 2018: Trump meets with Qatari emir in Oval Office. New Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declares that Qatar blockade must end.

May 2018: Kushners are finalizing a deal with a Qatar-backed company to bail out 666 Fifth Avenue; Trump overrides his own intelligence officials to grant Kushner a top-secret security clearance.

October 2018: MBS’s agents brutally murder Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

2020: Trump puts Kushner in charge of solving the Middle East. Abraham Accords ease tensions between Israel and Gulf States but offer nothing for Palestinians, a deal Hamas vows to undermine.

December 2020: Trump pardons Charles Kushner.

January 21, 2021: As President Joe Biden takes over, Kushner launches Affinity Partners, a private equity firm that goes on to secure billions in investments from Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar.

Kushner and Saudi officials look on during an Oval Office meeting between Trump and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in March 2018.Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty

February 2022: Biden administration sanctions Russia’s Dmitriev.

August 2022: The New York Times savages Breaking History, Kushner’s “soulless” new memoir: “Kushner’s fealty to Trump remains absolute. Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.”

October 7, 2023: Hamas attacks Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Israel launches a retaliation campaign that will reduce Gaza to rubble, kill at least 72,500 Gazans, and injure 172,000 more.

February 2024: Kushner insists he won’t play a role in the second Trump administration; he also says Israel should consider permanently relocating Palestinians, in part because “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable.”

March 2024: Affinity announces a plan to develop a hyperluxury resort in a protected wilderness area in Albania considered the “jewel” of the Adriatic.

November 2024: Trump, elected to a second term, says he’ll make Charles Kushner America’s ambassador to France.

January 2025: Affinity becomes the top shareholder of Phoenix Financial, reportedly linked to Israeli settlements.

Charles Kushner, whom Trump pardoned and later appointed ambassador to France, presents the program for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence at Villa Masséna in Nice, France, in May 2026.Boizet E/Abaca/Zuma

September 2025: UN commission finds Israel guilty of genocide in Gaza; Forbes proclaims Kushner a billionaire; Kushner brokers a $55 billion purchase, with Saudi Arabia, of video game giant Electronic Arts. (MBS loves video games.)

October 2025: Kushner and Trump special envoy (and business partner) Steve Witkoff announce Gaza “ceasefire.” Israel continues to occupy most of Gaza.

November 2025: Kushner and Witkoff propose a unilateral peace plan that cedes territory to Russia, bars Ukraine from NATO membership, and caps Ukraine’s military capacity. It was “drafted solely by Dmitriev,” according to the Insider.

January 2026: Trump appoints Kushner and Witkoff to the executive board of his new Board of Peace, which bills itself as a “peace-building body” focused on (but not limited to) Gaza. Among its founding members: Qatar, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.

Kushner (right) listens as US special envoy Steve Witkoff (second from left) addresses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (second from right) in Jerusalem in October 2025.Chen Junqing/Xinhua/Zuma

February 2026: Trump names Kushner his new “envoy for peace.” Kushner and Witkoff lead Iran negotiations, despite limited experience and Kushner’s business ties to Iran’s foes. Negotiations fail. New York Times op-ed: “The Trump team is running [foreign policy] like a Trump subsidiary.”

March 2026: US and Israel attack Iran, which closes the Strait of Hormuz; Affinity’s assets top $6 billion as Kushner solicits more funds from Iran’s adversaries. “Technically, I have not joined the administration,” he insists, adding that he’s just a “volunteer.”

April 2026: Trump announces a potential bailout of UAE, now struggling as a result of Kushner’s diplomatic failures. As the war drags on and fuel prices soar, Democrats launch an investigation “amid mounting reports that Mr. Kushner is wielding diplomatic powers in the Middle East while soliciting billions of dollars in capital from foreign powers whose interests diverge sharply from those of the American people.”