Has Jared Kushner flipped on Trump?
Reformed Trump fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen is a keen follower of Palmer Report. He frequently retweets Palmer articles, including a recent article quoting one of his (Cohen’s) tweets saying:
“Interesting how @jaredkushner (#SecretaryOfEverything) name appears to be absent from all the controversy, indictments and arrests. Is he next to fall or a cooperating witness? Knowing what a snake he is, I bet the latter!”
It’s like the dog that didn’t bark. In “The Adventure of Silver Blaze” Sherlock Holmes solves a mystery by observing that a dog didn’t bark during the commission of a murder, deducing thereby that the dog knew the murderer. Then there’s the curious incident of Jared Kushner. As Cohen points out he’s conspicuously absent from mention in the current flurry of indictments and arrests surrounding the investigation of the Trump organization. To date no one has heard any barking from Kushner. Could that mean that Kushner has indeed flipped on Donald Trump?
At this stage it’s all speculation, of course. But I’m inclined to agree there’s enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that not only has Kushner flipped on Trump, he flipped very early on, and it may have been Kushner’s idea from the beginning.
You may recall that shortly after the election Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump disappeared from public view. They have remained in virtual hiding ever since. While the 40 year old Kushner has always been a tad camera shy, historically preferring to practice his hypocrisies under cover of darkness, the same cannot be said for his more brazen and shameless wife. Yet both have disappeared, leaving nothing behind but their ubiquitous trail of slime.
Kushner learned a lot from his father, including how to broker a plea deal. Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, is a disbarred attorney and convicted felon who negotiated what would otherwise be a life-endingly stiff sentence for witness tampering and illegal campaign contributions down to two years by becoming a cooperating witness. Like father, like son? Perhaps.
Kushner’s life is one defined by privileged opportunism. Lacking the necessary native intelligence and work ethic to matriculate the old-fashioned way, Kushner got into Harvard through his father’s machinations. Not long before Jared was admitted Kushner’s father made a donation of $2.5 million to the University.
Though coming from a family of Democrats (Kushner’s father used to be personal friends with the Clintons) Jared Kushner easily made the chameleon-like transition to radical alt-right Republicanism after marrying Trump’s daughter and joining the Trump administration. Forget ethics, here’s a man whose eye is always on the main chance.
In other words, if ever there was a born flipper, Jared Kushner is it. Also, if Michael Cohen thinks he’s probably flipped then he probably has. Recall that Cohen warned us about the trouble that would ensue should Trump lose the election nearly two years before the January 6th insurrection. Cohen’s prophecies have a funny habit of coming true. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.