Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has reportedly chatted with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman several times since leaving the Trump White House.
A source familiar with the discussions told Reuters that Kushner had discussed normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but would not specify whether the conversations were before or after the start of Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza.
Last month, Saudi Arabia said that it would not recognize Israel until the creation of a Palestinian state, which if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to be believed, is a long way off. This is in sharp contrast to Kushner’s pitch to move Palestinians to the Negev Desert and transform Gaza’s “very valuable” “waterfront property.”
Kushner served as a top Middle East adviser during Trump’s time in office, and was instrumental in installing the Abraham Accords, which saw Israel normalize ties with two other Gulf countries.
Kushner’s cozy relationship with MBS highlights how Donald Trump might choose to work with Saudi Arabia should he be reelected in November. Three sources close to Kushner said that they expect Trump’s son-in-law to be involved in any Saudi talks in an unofficial capacity. A spokesperson for Kushner denied that he was seeking any such role.
It’s not clear, however, that Kushner has any leverage in his relationship with MBS.
Last month, the Senate Finance Committee found that Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, had yet to return any profit to its foreign investors after receiving billions from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and other foreign governments.
In his report, Senator Ron Wyden wrote that “sovereign wealth fund investments and prospective real estate deals give foreign governments leverage over the Trump family.”
Wyden explained that “a potential future Trump administration will have financial motives to make foreign policy decisions that may be counter to the national interest in order to ensure Kushner and Ivanka Trump continue to collect millions of dollars in fees from foreign governments through Affinity.”
When asked for more details about Kushner’s friendship with MBS, the source with knowledge of their conversations declined, saying, “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to share that.”
