Everything We Need to Know About Jared Kushner and His Family

In the entirety of the Trump administration, there is perhaps no one who is poised to do quite as much damage as 45’s seemingly innocuous son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Though he remains largely untested, the new President has tons of faith in Ivanka’s husband. Earlier this year, Trump anointed Kushner the White House Innovations Director. The newly created post might sound vague, but sources indicate that it carries a heck of a lot of responsibilities. Kushner is a top-level Presidential advisor, he has diplomatic duties, and he’s been charged with renovating the Office of Veteran’s Affairs, the War on Drugs, Employment education, and more. Clearly, the President has big plans for his son-in-law, but the question remains, what do we really know about Jared Kushner and the old New York family he comes from?

1. Kushner Wasn’t Born Wealthy … Just Kidding!

Born in New Jersey in 1981, Jared Kushner — like his future father-in-law — was born the son of a real-estate developer. Four years after Jared was born, his father founded Kushner Companies, ultimately turning the real-estate company into a billion-dollar profit machine. Of course, legal trouble in the mid-2000s shined a light on one reason Charles Kushner’s company was so darn profitable.

2. He Went to Harvard College Thanks to a Sizable Donation From His Daddy

Though the current story is that Kushner was a model student in high school, records from his time at the prestigious Frisch school indicate that he wasn’t a great student. Either way, he managed to secure a spot in Harvard around the time his father made a $2.5 million donation to the campus. Then, when Jared got into NYU to chase a dual MBA, the university was the recipient of a $3 million donation from Jared’s father, too. Two very weird coincidences, right?

3. He Has Absolutely Zero Political Experience

This may or may not be a selling point to some people, but aside from one semester at Harvard as a member of the Institute of Politics, Kushner has no real world or even academic experience with politics. Of course, that same amount of political experience got his tangerine father-in-law elected President of the United States, so that might not be a bad thing.

4. His Father, Charles Kushner, Served 14 Months in Federal Prison

At one point, Jared Kushner’s father was the biggest Democratic Party campaign donator in the state of New Jersey. Then, it was discovered that he attempted to blackmail a witness in a campaign finance investigation. Charles Kushner invited the witness to a hotel to meet a prostitute, then secretly video-taped the encounter so he could get the witness to recant his testimony. Kusher the Elder eventually pleaded guilty to “filing false tax returns and campaign finance reports in addition to one count of retaliating against a witness.”

5. Jared Took Over the Family Business at a Young Age

Jared decided to change his focus from law to business in 2008 when he took over the family business. His explanation was that he saw his father’s arrest and refused to become part of a system (the legal system) that would cause so much pain to families by imprisoning people just because they broke several laws in an attempt to influence local democracy.

6. Jared and His Dad Are Super Close

Before you dismiss his Dad’s crookedness as not being anything to do with his son, you should understand that Jared is — at least on the surface — a huge fan of his dad. He visited Charles Kushner several times in jail. There were rumors that Charles was running his company even when legally barred from doing so, using Jared as a figurehead. Jared himself has stated that he discusses everything with his father.

7. Jared Kushner and Rupert Murdoch Are Buds

One of the most powerful communication magnates in the world, Rupert Murdoch, has been known to dispense wisdom to young Jared Kushner on several occasions in regard to the running of Kushner’s New York Observer. There are even rumors that — before their marriage — informal counseling from Rupert Murdoch and his now ex-wife Wendi Deng helped Ivanka and Jared through troubled times.

8. No One Is Sure About Jared Kushner’s Real Political Leanings

In spite of the fact that his father-in-law is one of the most conservative leaders on the planet, no one is quite sure where Jared Kushner lands. Thanks to his relationship with his father, Jared has ties to everyone from the Clintons to the Murdochs. Not only that, but Jared has plenty of reason to hate conservative leader Chris Christie, the man who put his father in jail.

9. Reports Indicate that He Was a Big Part of Putting Trump in the White House

Whether we want to admit it or not, one of the primary reasons that Donald Trump won the presidency was his aggressive and unusual social media strategy (some might even call it hateful, bigoted, and arrogant). It was Kushner who got most of the credit for organizing the Donald’s immensely successful social media campaign. Jared was also one of the people who pushed for former RNC chair Reince Preibus to take over as campaign manager.

10. Things Aren’t Going Great at the White House

A mixture of sources coming out of the White House since Trump’s occupation have reported that Jared isn’t fitting in very well in his new surroundings. He’s aggressive about making sure no one has as much access to Trump as he does, but he doesn’t have the wiles to actually control it. In fact, there’s a lot to indicate that his influence with the Donald is waning.