Trump: Kushner had ‘a very easy life’ until he pursued Mideast peace

WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner had an uncomplicated life until he started pursuing Israeli-Palestinian peace, his father-in-law, US President Donald Trump, said Monday.

“Jared had a very easy life,” Trump said. “He was doing phenomenally in New York and everything he touched has turned to gold. And then one day he said, ‘I wanna come down and I wanna have peace in the Middle East and I wanna do criminal justice reform and I wanna do all these wonderful things,’ and his life became extremely complex.”

Kushner, 38, has been tasked with leading Trump’s efforts to broker an agreement that has eluded diplomats for decades. The president’s remarks came at a White House event celebrating congressional passage of a prison reform bill that Kushner also pushed for.

Trump praised Kushner, who formally serves his administration as a senior adviser, for what he described as his sacrificing his previously undemanding career.

“And he wouldn’t trade it,” the president added. “I don’t think he’d trade it because what he’s doing is incredible. And he is doing great in the Middle East.”

Kushner’s real estate dealings have not been quite as golden as the president made out, most notably the 666 Fifth Avenue office building in New York

Kushner purchased the building in 2007 for $1.8 billion in a mostly debt deal, but the housing crisis triggered financial setbacks for 666 Fifth Avenue. He has been probed for allegedly attempting to use his position to seek foreign funding for the building.

At the event — dubbed by the White House as the 2019 Prison Reform Summit — Trump steered clear of many of the controversies surrounding Kushner’s role in the administration.

The Democratic-controlled House Oversight and Reform Committee recently announced that it was investigating the alleged use by Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, of a personal email account for official White House communications. Ivanka Trump also serves as an adviser to the president.

Kushner also ignited uproar after his White House security clearance was approved despite the objections of American intelligence agencies, including the CIA. The New York Times reported that Trump ordered his former chief of staff John Kelly to order a top-secret clearance for him.

The full scope of the officials’ concerns about Kushner are not clear.

But he came under intense scrutiny since landing his White House gig, with multiple investigations into potential wrongdoing, including whether he coordinated with Russian officials to influence the 2016 election.

The conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which did not recommend an indictment against Kushner, puts him in the clear, though he remains a subject of several Congressional probes.

On Monday, Trump extolled Kushner’s role in championing the First Step Act, one of the administration’s few legislative achievements. The law will allow prisoners convicted of nonviolent offenses who demonstrate “good behavior” the opportunity to shorten their sentences. It also includes a number of other measures to curb the rate of repeat offenders.

The president said that Kushner’s efforts to solidify an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal could yield success, though currently, the White House’s Middle East peace efforts appear moribund, as Palestinians have refused to work with the administration since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and subsequently moved the US embassy there.

After Palestinian Authority officials said Washington had forfeited its right to act as an honest broker in negotiations and declined to participate in its peace efforts, Trump cuts American aid to the PA, the East Jerusalem hospital network, Israeli-Palestinian co-existence programs, and UN agencies that serve Palestinian populations.

Trump’s team, led by Kushner and special envoy Jason Greenblatt, is expected to roll out its long-awaited peace plan after Israel’s April 9 election. Palestinians have already indicated that they won’t accept any proposal Trump presents. Nevertheless, the president suggested Monday that his son-in-law’s quest might bear fruit.

“Someday, before we’re finished,” Trump told Kushner, “I think you’re going to have something very important to sign.”