In the past, the dinner with Ye and Fuentes would have become the responsibility of Ivanka and Jared. They were there when Trump hesitated to condemn David Duke, and when he shared an offensive image of a six-pointed star alongside a pile of cash, and when he repeatedly told a Jewish group, “I don’t want your money.” Melania may have gone on record to say, “He’s not Hitler,” but it was Ivanka and Jared, the only Jewish members of the family, who could actually help him wriggle out of trouble.
But this time, Ivanka and Jared were in the Middle East, touring the pyramids and climbing on the backs of camels with their three children on their way to Qatar for the World Cup, where there was business to tend to. They were joined there by an employee from Affinity Partners, the investment firm Kushner founded in 2021, for which he has raised a reported $3 billion — a majority, $2 billion, from the Saudi public-investment fund.
When calls began to come in looking for help, looking for public support, even looking for a response, Kushner refused. Trump’s Nazi associations and overtures are his problem now. Kushner has also started giving out his father-in-law’s number to people who call with the usual asks, whereas in the past he would have positioned himself as a go-between. “He was like, ‘Look, I’m out. I’m really out,’” a person with knowledge of the situation said. So why was he at the announcement? “I realize it’s complicated because Jared is there,” this person said. The “mixed message” was “a combination of having respect for a family member and drawing clear lines for your life.” Another person, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that perhaps Kushner felt a sense of “familial obligation.” Nunberg, liberated to speak as Nunberg, had a different explanation. “Jared was there for the Saudis,” he said, only half-joking.
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