All throughout the course of presidential history, it is safe to say that we have never seen something quite like the curious case of Jared Kushner. The son-in-law who became a campaign aide—and then a senior official in the White House—has had his legitimacy questioned since the first day of the Trump administration. Well, perhaps it is more accurate to say that it was questioned long before that.
A 2006 book called “The Price of Admission” centered on college admission situations that didn’t seem quite fair. One of the most prominent characters in the book was none other than Mr. Kushner, whose admission to Harvard definitely attracted some attention. Right before Kushner was accepted into the most prestigious university in the country, his father made quite a hefty donation to the school. Shelling out approximately two and a half million dollars, the elder Kushner seemed to have secured his son’s place in the elite school. However, even administrators at Kushner’s former high school seemed to believe that the acceptance was unfair. Noting that Kushner did not have the grades or SAT scores for such an honor, many of them expressed disappointment with Harvard’s seemingly biased decision.
It is stories such as these that lend an interesting backdrop to what is now currently happening in the White House. Recently, it was announced that Donald Trump has filled his son-in-law’s plate with a lot of responsibility. Heading up a commission to help fulfill Trump’s campaign promises by making the government operate more like a business, lessening bureaucracy and even lowering opioid addiction rates, it seems as if Mr. Trump has entrusted the fate of the entire world with Kushner. This, of course, does not even cover the role that was supposed to be the primary one Kushner was fulfilling—to bring peace to the Middle East.
At this point, it seems as if Trump believes there is no job for which his son-in-law is not qualified. When one considers the magnitude of his duties, it wouldn’t be surprising if many Washington insiders were scratching their heads at this point. Kushner, who seems to have barely entered Harvard on his father’s laurels, has been given positions for which it seems he is not even vaguely qualified. Not to mention, the peace in the Middle East gig has been attempted several times before—to no avail. The fact that Kushner’s family is tight with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu wouldn’t seem to bode well for the situation, either. However, Trump has made his wishes known explicitly; Kushner is to reign as one of the president’s right-hand men. The world, however, may suffer greatly as a result.