Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, said on Feb. 13 that he has no plans to join the Trump administration if the Republican candidate is elected to a second term in November.
Mr. Kushner, who served as a senior adviser to President Trump, said at the Axios BFD conference in Miami that he intends to focus on his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, which he founded in 2021.
“I’ve been very clear that my desire at this phase of my life is to focus on my firm,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity as a family to be out of the spotlight.”
Mr. Kushner is married to Ivanka Trump, who served as an adviser to her father and focused on education and economic development for women. They have three children.
“Both my wife and myself were working in the White House, which is a 24/7, high-stakes job, and so we both really enjoyed the opportunity to be down here in Florida with the kids,” he said.
Mr. Kushner said that he was “very fortunate” to play a role in his father-in-law’s 2016 “family campaign” and then be able to join the Trump administration following its victory.
“I suspect that if he gets into office again, he would have just a level of competence and professionalism even more so than it was in the last administration,” he said.
“I think he has a much better understanding of who was effective and all these different roles, and I suspect he'll have a very, very long list of very qualified people to choose from.”
President Trump is on track for a third nomination as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, as he won the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses, even as he faces legal challenges.
‘Too Painful for the Family’
The former president said last year that he wouldn’t want his daughter and Mr. Kushner to get involved in his 2024 campaign because “it’s too painful for the family.”“I said, ‘That’s enough for the family,’” President Trump said in an interview with Fox News on June 20, 2023. “My family’s been through hell.”
“Nobody has been through what my family has been through. Ivanka had a really successful line of clothing, I mean, making a fortune. When I did this, she was really, she closed it up. She sort of felt she had to, but she closed it up.”
President Trump, who has maintained his innocence in the legal challenges he faces, has claimed that he has been targeted by “witch hunts” amid his 2024 campaign.
Mr. Kushner worked on a wide range of issues and policies in the Trump administration, including Middle East peace efforts. He developed a relationship with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has overseen social and economic reforms and a far-reaching crackdown on dissent in the kingdom.
After Mr. Kushner left the White House, he started a private equity firm that reportedly received a $2 billion investment from the sovereign wealth fund controlled by Prince Mohammed, drawing scrutiny from Democrats.
