Politics

Jared Kushner’s Mysterious Role in the Trump Administration

Is the president’s son-in-law carrying out the public’s business or pursuing his own private interests?

First published in The Atlantic on April 15, 2026.

by Andrea Bernstein, The Atlantic
April 16, 2026 | reading time: 6 Min.

In 2021, shortly after he left his role as a senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner let it be known that he had loved his job but disliked the scrutiny and disclosure that came with being a top U.S. government official. He set up a private-equity firm and took a $2 billion investment from a Saudi fund led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He proclaimed that he was embracing private life. “I’m an investor now,” Kushner said in a 2024 interview. If President Trump “calls you on November whatever and says, ‘I’d like you to come back to D.C.,’ you say, ‘Thanks, but I’m good’?” the interviewer, Dan Primack of Axios, pressed. “Yes,” Kushner responded.

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