Does Trump Want Jared And Ivanka Out Of His White House?

Image by Digital Colorization by Ben Park; By Justin Lane/EPA/Rex/shutterstock

By Nathan Guttman March 3, 2018

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were having a bad enough week even before the latest bit of bad news broke. After all, Kushner recently lost his top-secret security clearance and both him and Ivanka are reportedly under increasing scrutiny from special counsel Robert Mueller.

According to a New York Times report, the couple may have lost their most valuable asset of all: the support of Donald Trump.

The president, according to the Times, is frustrated with his son-in-law, “whom he now views as a liability” and with his daughter Ivanka, and has at times said that “they never should have come to the White House and should leave.” Trump feels that Kushner’s legal problems and the expansion of Mueller’s investigation into his business finances are reflecting negatively on the White House.

The president, however, either hasn’t really made up his mind, or may be enjoying playing with his daughter and son-in-law’s feelings by sending them mixed messages.

One the one hand, Trump reportedly supports Chief of Staff John Kelly’s criticism of the couple and would like to see Kelly show them the door, but on the other hand, Trump also at times backs Jared and Ivanka and tells them they should ignore the noise and keep doing their jobs.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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