Doug Mills/The New York Times



Jared Kushner's charmed life is about to come to a screeching halt.


WASHINGTON POST

President Trump arrived back in Washington after his first overseas trip to find that the Russia tangle has made its way into the White House -- in the form of one of the president's closest aides: son-in-law Jared Kushner. Post reporters Ellen Nakashima, Adam Entous and Greg Miller dropped a Friday afternoon bombshell when they reported that Kushner and the seemingly omnipresent Sergey Kislyak -- Moscow's ambassador to the United States -- had talked about setting up a secret back-channel communication system with the Kremlin. According to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports, Kushner and Kislyak discussed using Russian diplomatic facilities to shield their conversations from our own country's intelligence apparatus. The move was unusual to say the least -- and it happened several weeks before Trump was inaugurated, so Kushner was acting as a private citizen.

The meeting was picked up by U.S. intelligence and is said to have occurred between Dec. 1 and 2 at Trump Tower. Another controversial figure was also there -- ousted Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is refusing to comply with a Senate subpoena demanding a list of his contacts with Russian officials between June 16, 2015, and Jan. 20, 2017. The Senate Intelligence Committee is deciding whether to hold him in contempt.

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...The report that Kushner is now a focus of the FBI probe into Russian interference in the election, brings the Justice Department investigation and recently appointed special counsel Robert Mueller into the inner sanctum of the White House. 

That is dangerous territory for the president, who could more easily attribute any problems related to Russia to rogue aides like Flynn and Manafort who are no longer advising him. But severing the tie between himself and Jared -- whose broad portfolio includes Middle East peace and "innovation" -- will not be so easy.

There was a wealth of reporting on the first son-in-law over the weekend. Most of it suggested that Kushner was readying to fight the idea that he has done anything improper when it comes to Russia. John Wagner, Robert Costa and Ashley Parker reported the president was considering setting up a war room to more quickly combat the endless drip of Russia-related stories: "Kushner has played an active role in the effort to rethink and rearrange the communications team, improve the White House’s surrogate operation, and develop an internal group to respond to the influx of negative stories and revelations over the FBI’s Russia inquiry, said a person with knowledge of the coming changes.

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

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 The New York Times's Glenn Thrush, Maggie Haberman and Sharon LaFreniere reported that Kushner spent the last three days "in fretful seclusion" at his father-in-law's estate in Bedminister, N.J..: "But he emerged defiant and eager to defend his reputation in congressional hearings, according to two of his associates ... In recent weeks, the Trump-Kushner relationship, the most stable partnership in an often unstable West Wing, is showing unmistakable signs of strain ... It has been duly noted in the White House that Mr. Trump, who feels that he has been ill served by his staff, has increasingly included Mr. Kushner when he dresses down aides and officials, a rarity earlier in his administration and during the campaign."

The NYT reports that the "most serious point of contention" was the pitch by Kushner's sister, Nicole Meyer, to Beijing investors regarding a Kushner Companies condo project in New Jersey. Meyer "dangled the availability of EB-5 visas to the United States as an enticement for Chinese financiers willing to spend $500,000 or more." 

For Mr. Trump, Ms. Meyer’s performance violated two major rules: Politically, it undercut his immigration crackdown, and in a personal sense, it smacked of profiteering off Mr. Trump — one of the sins that warrants expulsion from his orbit.

In the following days during routine West Wing meetings, the president made several snarky, disparaging comments about Mr. Kushner’s family and the visas that were clearly intended to express his annoyance, two aides said. Mr. Kushner did not respond, at least not in earshot.

His preppy aesthetic, sotto voce style and preference for backstage maneuvering seemingly set him apart from his father-in-law — but the similarities outweigh the differences. Both men were reared in the freewheeling, ruthless world of real estate, and both possess an unshakable self-assurance that is both their greatest attribute and their direst vulnerability.

Mr. Kushner’s reported feeler to the Russians even as President Barack Obama remained in charge of American foreign policy was a trademark move by someone with a deep confidence in his abilities that critics say borders on conceit, people close to him said. And it echoes his history of sailing forth into unknown territory, including buying a newspaper at age 25 and developing a data-analytics program that he has said helped deliver the presidency to his father-in-law.

He is intensely proud of his accomplishments in the private sector and has repeatedly suggested his tenure in Washington will hurt, not help, his brand and bottom line.

That unfailing self-regard has not endeared him to the rest of the staff. Resentful Trump staff members have long talked about “Jared Island” to describe the special status occupied by Mr. Kushner, who, in their view, is given license to exercise power and take on a vague portfolio — “Middle East peace” and “innovation” are its central components — without suffering the consequences of failure visited by the president on mere hirelings.

Adding to the animus is Mr. Kushner’s aloof demeanor and his propensity for avoiding messy aspects of his job that he would simply rather not do — he has told associates he wants nothing to do with the legislative process, for instance. He also has a habit, they say, of disappearing during crises, such as his absence on a family ski trip when Mr. Trump’s first health care bill was crashing in March.

Mr. Bannon, a onetime Kushner ally turned adversary known for working himself into ill health, has taken to comparing the former real estate executive to “the air,” because he blows in and out of meetings leaving little trace, according to one senior Trump aide. Just as Mr. Trump does, Mr. Kushner quickly forms fixed opinions about people, sometimes based on scant evidence. But Mr. Kushner is quicker to admit when he has misjudged a situation, and to change course.

Despite the perception that he is the one untouchable adviser in the president’s inner circle, Mr. Kushner was not especially close to his father-in-law before the 2016 campaign. The two bonded when Mr. Kushner helped to take over the campaign’s faltering digital operation and to sell a reluctant Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox News’s parent company, on the viability of his father-in-law’s candidacy by showing him videos of Mr. Trump’s rally during a lunch at Fox headquarters in mid-2015.

Al Drago/The New York Times

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Mr. Kushner’s war with Mr. Bannon has been a damaging distraction. Several upper-level staff members said Mr. Kushner has made it plain to them that they needed to choose sides or be iced out from an increasingly influential team that includes Gary D. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, and a handful of other Kushner-allied power brokers like Dina Powell, a national security official.

Mr. Kushner remains infuriated by what he believes to be leaks about his team by Mr. Bannon, who has privately cautioned Mr. Trump against being “captured” by liberal, New York “globalists” associated with his son-in-law, according to three people close to the president.

Mr. Trump, however, has had enough. He recently chided Mr. Kushner for continuing to call for Mr. Bannon’s ouster, saying he would not fire his conservative populist adviser — who has deep connections with Mr. Trump’s white, working-class base — simply because Mr. Kushner wanted him out, according an administration official.

Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, spoke last week to coal miners in Sycamore, Pa. He has emerged as a leading voice for withdrawal from the Paris accord.Credit  Justin Merriman/Getty Images

Mr. Kushner appears to be modifying his centrist stances. Instead of urging the president to keep the United States in the Paris climate accord, as he sought to months ago, he has come to believe the standards in the agreement need to be changed, a person close to him said.

Mr. Trump admires Mr. Kushner’s tough streak, and shares his taste for payback, especially in defense of his family. Over the years, former employees said, Mr. Kushner has quietly sought revenge on enemies whom he sees as hostile to another scandal-buffeted man in his life — his father, Charles Kushner, a New Jersey-based real estate tycoon who was imprisoned for, among other crimes, efforts to retaliate against his sister for cooperating with a federal inquiry targeting him.

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There has been lots of buzz about Trump bringing back some of his more controversial old hands. Last night, for instance:

For some insight into how Kushner works, don't miss Michael Kranish's and Jonathan O'Connell's revealing piece on how Trump's son-in-law was playing hardball way before he moved to Washington. Michael and Jonathan explain how Jared bought the New York Observer in 2006 after his father went to prison for federal tax evasion. Some former colleagues allege he aimed to use the paper to settle scores with business rivals. Kushner also took charge -- at the age of 25 -- of his father's real-estate business, paying $1.8 billion in 2007 for the country's most expensive office building. The timing was off -- the Great Recession was underway -- and the property's value plummeted to about half of what it was worth by 2010. Kushner played hardball with the investors -- one of whom was Trump friend Thomas Barrack Jr. Kushner ultimately made a deal to lower his debt and maintain majority ownership in building. Some lenders had hard feelings "but Kushner viewed it as a hardball business deal and showed that he was a tough negotiator, according to an individual familiar with his perspective. Sources familiar with the arrangement said the Kushner family got back most of its $500 million investment."

Roll Call columnist Walter Shapiro had a blistering column in The Guardian: "Even under the benign theory that Kushner thought that a secret back channel was like a small boy’s tin-can telephone, his life in the coming months and maybe years will be a study in misery. He will probably spend more time with his personal lawyer, Clinton Justice Department veteran Jamie Gorelick, than with Ivanka or his children. Whether it is an appearance under oath on Capitol Hill or the inevitable FBI interview, every sentence Kushner utters will bring with it possible legal jeopardy."

To take his White House job, Kushner resigned from the family business but "kept stakes in about 90 percent of his real estate holdings, valued between $132 million and $407 million," which troubles some ethics experts.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Sergey N. Gorkov, the chief of Vnesheconombank, in Moscow in February. The bank drew sanctions from the Obama administration after Russia annexed Crimea.CreditAlexei Nikolsky/Russian Presidential Office, via Getty Images

The NYT on Tuesday examined why Kushner met in mid-December with Russian banker Sergey N. Gorkov, a close Putin associate whose financial institution is under sanction by the U.S. government. U.S. officials now say the meeting "may have been part of an effort by Mr. Kushner to establish a direct line to Mr. Putin outside of established diplomatic channels," report Matthew Rosenberg, Mark Mazzetti and Maggie Haberman. More from their piece: "It is not clear whether Mr. Kushner saw the Russian banker as someone who could be repeatedly used as a go-between or whether the meeting with Mr. Gorkov was designed to establish a direct, secure communications line to Mr. Putin ... Yet one current and one former American official with knowledge of the continuing congressional and F.B.I. investigations said they were examining whether the channel was meant to remain open, and if there were other items on the meeting’s agenda, including lifting sanctions that the Obama administration had imposed on Russia in response to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its aggression in Ukraine."

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

VOX

• Vnesheconombank, the Russian government owned bank where Gorkov serves as chair, has a history of helping place Russian spies in the United States.   [Italics and underlining by Esco] One, Evgeny Buryakov, pleaded guilty last year to working for Russian intelligence while posing as a Vnesheconombank employee. [Justice Department
• To make matters weirder, Gorkov claims that his meeting with Kushner was not about the Trump administration at all, but Kushner’s real estate business. [NYT / Jo Becker, Matthew Rosenberg, Maggie Haberman] 
• All of these stories specify that Kushner is not a suspect in a criminal investigation. But his activities do appear to be coming under a lot more scrutiny.
• He's not the only one. Apparently Russian intelligence officials were caught on tape discussing compromising financial information they had about Trump and senior aides to him last year, information they thought they could use as leverage. Of course, the information could be fictitious, and the Russian agents could have been trying to exaggerate their intel. But if the intel is real, that's … pretty bad. [CNN / Pamela Brown, Jim Sciutto, Dana Bash] 
• Outside of Kushner, Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen appears to be a focus of Congress's Russia investigation. Cohen told reporters he declined to participate with the inquiry, saying, "To date, there has not been a single witness, document or piece of evidence linking me to this fake Russian conspiracy." [ABC News / Brian Ross and Matthew Mosk] 
• If all the above seems super-complicated, don’t despair. Alex Ward has a handy explainer on each part. [Vox / Alex Ward​] 

THE REPUBLICANS’ WAR ON MEDICAID

JOHN CASSIDY, NEW YORKER

AMID THE CHAOS, TRUMP’S APPOINTEES PUSH HIS AGENDA

JEFFREY TOOBIN, NEW YORKER

 Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Bernie Sanders was angry. Donald Trump was angry. Clinton didn’t want to risk it.

VOX

People wanted Hillary Clinton to be angrier on the campaign trail — about the problems facing everyday Americans, and on behalf of them — and her team knew it.

The problem was they couldn’t do anything about it, according to Clinton speechwriter Dan Schwerin, who spoke to New York Magazine’s Rebecca Traister for an exposé on Clinton’s life after the election. Why were their hands tied? Because she’s a woman, Schwerin said.

“Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump both excelled at channeling people’s anger,” he told Traister:

“And there was a way in which this anger was read as authentic. But there’s a reason why male candidates can shout and are called passionate, and if a woman candidate raises her voice to whip up a crowd, she’s screeching and yelling.”

Clinton understood this, says Schwerin. “So she’s controlled. She doesn’t rant and rave, she’s careful. And then that’s read as inauthentic; it means that she doesn’t understand how upset people are, or the pain people are in, because she’s not angry in the way those guys are angry. So she must be okay with the status quo because she’s not angry.”

Clinton still believes in her strategy not to get angry, despite the public outcry for her to act differently. In fact, she tells Traister that she “beat both” Sanders and Trump (likely referring to the popular vote) with this tactic. [Read more at VOX ]

TRUMP, THE GREAT EQUIVOCATER.

 David Nakamura writes. “... pundits [joked] that after eight years of [Barack Obama’s] cautious foreign policy, the U.S. was no longer ‘leading from behind.’ ...Trump’s remarks at the [NATO] event celebrating the Article 5 mutual defense treaty left the impression of a president who continues to lead from the side — with one foot in and one foot out when it comes to U.S. multilateral commitments. 

Whether it’s NATO, the Paris climate pact, the Iran nuclear deal or the NAFTA trade accord, the Trump administration has wavered and equivocated, failing to offer a full-throated endorsement and allowing such agreements to continue in an awkward state of limbo without U.S. leadership and nourishment. Thursday’s ceremony … was supposed to put an end to the uncertainty among U.S. allies and partners in Europe. Trump’s aides had laid the groundwork, hinting [that Trump] would directly endorse Article 5. Instead, [he] found no space to do so in his 900-word address.”

-- For NATO countries, the upshot is their relations with the Trump administration continue to be defined by uncertainty and anxiety even as the president wraps up a foreign trip that was intended to reaffirm U.S. global leadership: ...Ian Bremmer, president of a global risk consulting firm ... [said] Trump’s posture “makes it more likely these countries are going their own way … There will be some move towards more coordination of European-only security, and there will be less coordination with the United States."

A TROUBLING GOP WIN IN MONTANA

Janie Osborne/Getty Images

WASHINGTON POST

A troubling victory for Republicans in Montana. Gianforte’s victory after assaulting reporter reflects rising tribalism in American politics.

Greg Gianforte admitted to attacking a reporter and apologized during his victory speech last night, as he kept Montana’s sole House seat in Republican hands.

On the eve of the special election, the wealthy technology entrepreneur flipped out when the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs asked him about the CBO’s score of the health care bill. He now faces misdemeanor assault charges for reportedly throwing Jacobs to the ground and breaking his glasses.

“I made a mistake,” the congressman-elect said at his party in Bozeman. “Not in our minds!” yelled a supporter. David Weigel, who was there, reports that some in the crowd laughed.

-- After his ... six-point victory, Republican congressional leaders are making clear there will be no meaningful consequences for his behavior. 

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Many rank-and-file Republican voters, who follow the cues and signals of their leaders, defended their nominee’s behavior. “I understand the frustration of someone being right in your face,” Luanne Biggs, who voted for Gianforte, told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “I feel like it’s a little set up.”

CNN correspondent Kyung Lah went to a polling place to interview voters and reported that nearly everyone she talked with said they weren’t changing their vote.

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The Montana NBC Affiliate reportedly refused to cover the Gianforte story at all on Wednesday night, a shocking blackout. Irate sources inside 30 Rock appear to have called up New York Magazine’s Yashar Ali to complain: “KECI news director Julie Weindel was called by NBC News to see if KECI would cover the story or had any footage of the Gianforte incident that NBC News and its affiliates could use. … She was unyielding in her refusal to share any footage she may have had access to, or run a report on the story. … Weindel said ... ‘The person that tweeted [Jacobs] and was allegedly body slammed is a reporter for a politically biased publication.’  

The station was acquired, last month, by the conservative media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcasting.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the nation's largest local TV station operators, will pay about $3.9 billion for Tribune Media, adding more than 40 stations including KTLA in Los Angeles, WPIX in New York and WGN in Chicago. (Steve Ruark/AP)

-- Here’s why that’s a big deal: Sinclair Broadcasting just struck a deal with Tribune Media to buy dozens of local TV stations. “Already, Sinclair is the largest owner of local TV stations in the nation. If the $3.9 billion deal gets regulatory approval, Sinclair would have 7 of every 10 Americans in its potential audience,” Margaret Sullivan explained in a column last weekend. “Sinclair would have 215 stations, including ones in big markets such as Los Angeles, New York City [WPIX] and Chicago, instead of the 173 it has now. There’s no reason to think that the FCC’s new chairman, Ajit Pai, will stand in the way. Already, his commission has reinstated a regulatory loophole — closed under his predecessor, Tom Wheeler — that allows a single corporation to own more stations than the current 39 percent nationwide cap…

Ajit Pai, chairman of the U.S Federal Communications Commission,  (Eric Gaillard/Reuters)

“When Sinclair bought Washington’s WJLA-TV in 2014, the new owners quickly moved the station to the right … It added conservative commentary pieces from a Sinclair executive, Mark Hyman, and public affairs programming with conservative hosts. (The deal would give Sinclair a second Washington station, WDCW.) And Sinclair regularly sends ‘must-run’ segments to its stations across the country. One example: an opinion piece by a Sinclair executive that echoed President Trump’s slam at the national news media and what he calls the ‘fake news’ they produce…

“During the presidential campaign, Trump’s message came through loud and clear on Sinclair’s stations, many of which are in small or medium-sized markets in battleground states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, even bragged, according to Politico, that the campaign cut a deal with the media conglomerate for uninterrupted coverage of some Trump appearances. Is there a link between such content — and the expectation of more — and the loosening of federal rules?”

The darker forces that propelled President Trump’s rise are beginning to frame and define the rest of the Republican Party,” Karen Tumulty and Robert Costa explain. “When Gianforte assaulted a reporter … many saw not an isolated outburst by an individual, but the obvious, violent result of Trump’s charge that journalists are ‘the enemy of the people.’ …

Rob Quist, the folk-singing political neophyte who [ran] against Greg Gianforte, with Bernie Sanders. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

VOX

• This isn’t much of a victory, though. Gianforte only won by 6 to 7 points — in a state that President Donald Trump had won by 20 points. [CNN / Lauren Fox]...This is yet another special election in which results were much tighter than they were just a few months prior during the presidential election.
• By some estimates, the recent special elections suggest Democrats have a 14-point advantage in the current political climate. That’s more than they had in 2006 and 2008, when they swept the House and Senate races. [Twitter / Nate Silver]
• Even before Gianforte attacked a reporter, there were signs the election was getting closer. So Republicans can’t just blame the close race on the altercation. [The Guardian / Ben Jacobs]

President’s job approval moves decidedly downward.

Monmouth University Polling Institute

...There can be no doubt that Trump has inflicted a great deal of political damage on himself. Already beset by low poll ratings and a perception that his Administration was sputtering along, the events of the past two weeks have further undermined his position. In the daily Gallup poll, his approval rating stands at thirty-eight per cent. Even more worrying for him and other Republicans, his support appears to be eroding most in parts of the country that are politically competitive. A Monmouth University poll that was released on Thursday showed that in the three hundred counties he won by ten points or less in November, his approval rating has dropped from forty-one per cent to thirty-four per cent, and his disapproval rating has risen from forty-six per cent to fifty-four per cent. “Trump has been losing support in the places that matter most,” Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said.

How GOP gerrymandering is protecting Trump.

GOP control of Congress is Trump's best defense, and gerrymandering could save it in 2018.





WASHINGTON POST

MR. TRUMP GOES TO NATO

President Trump’s foreign trip had been, until Thursday, surprisingly light on crises. Then the NATO summit happened.

• 
  Trump, you may recall, was skeptical of NATO on the campaign trail — provoking serious concern that, should Russia strike a NATO member, he wouldn’t help strike back. [Vox / Zeeshan Aleem] 
• His speech Thursday was expected to clear up that worry by explicitly endorsing Article V of the NATO Charter, which promises mutual defense. He ... did not do that. And everyone promptly panicked. [Vox / Zeeshan Aleem] :

Stefan Rousseau - Pool/Getty Images

• President Trump promised NATO leaders that the U.S. would “never forsake” them, but also reminded them of their duty to pay a fair share of the costs. Trump used the occasion of his maiden summit with NATO leaders to remind fellow members that “23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying" and that they owe “massive amounts” from past years. The ceremony in Brussels was supposed to end uncertainty among American allies in Europe, but the president’s remarks instead left the impression of the U.S. having one foot in and one foot out on NATO and other global obligations.

• In practice, US troops are already committed in NATO activities, so Trump’s personal feelings on Article V might not be that relevant. But it’s still an unnecessary drama at best, and a reason to trust the US less at worst. [War on the Rocks / Sara Bjerg Moller] 
• The discord was palpable even in the body language, which included an awkward handshake with one world leader and a little jostling with another. 

• Trump appears to yank on Macron's arm, but the two smile afterward. A Trumpshake once again.
• [Trump]...appears to have called the Germans “bad” and complained about the number of BMWs being bought by Americans... [Quartz / Max de Haldevang] 
• .and shoved aside the prime minister of Montenegro to get the central position in a photo  [USA Today / Jessica Estepa]

All of this happened as the UK, which is livid at the US government for leaking information about the Manchester attack and investigation to the press, announced that it would limit intelligence sharing with the US to prevent leaks. [Reuters / Elizabeth Piper and Estelle Chirbon] 

U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May react during a ceremony at the new NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

• The Trump administration is promising to go after the leakers. But some of the distrust isn’t of American intelligence officers. It’s of Trump himself. Before the summit, European leaders thought of him as a “laughingstock” — they may not even be laughing now. [Politico Magazine / Susan Glasser​] 

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