(Washington) Without an official title in the White House other than being the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner has orchestrated a remarkable, and sometimes contested, return to power as a member of Donald Trump’s inner circle.
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President Trump notably entrusted the husband of his eldest daughter Ivanka with a key role in peace talks in Gaza and Ukraine.
But aside from this role as the president’s unofficial diplomat, Jared Kushner, 44, son of the current United States ambassador to France, also became involved this week, through Affinity Partners, his investment fund, in the proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance.
After his father-in-law’s defeat by Joe Biden in November 2020, Jared Kushner founded Affinity Partners, an investment firm largely financed by Saudi Arabia. According to the magazine ForbesJared Kushner is now a billionaire.
In September with his company, he bought Electronic Arts (EA), one of the largest American video game publishers, for $55 billion, alongside the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) and the American investment fund Silver Lake.
Are there possible conflicts of interest between public and private functions? Jared Kushner denies it and White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt considers it a “frankly despicable” question.
“Trusted member of the family”
According to the White House, Kushner brings “valuable expertise” to his team even though he only works as an “informal, unpaid advisor.”
“President Trump has a trusted family member and talented advisor in Jared Kushner,” deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly summarized to AFP, citing Kushner’s “success” in the Middle East.
Trump and his traveling special envoy, businessman Steve Witkoff, “often seek Mr. Kushner’s advice given his experience in complex negotiations, and Mr. Kushner has been generous in providing valuable expertise when asked,” Mr.me Kelly.
During his father-in-law’s first mandate, Kushner negotiated the Abraham Accords (signed in September 2020) which led to the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain then Morocco and Sudan.
PHOTO TERRY RENNA, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Jared Kushner (R), alongside Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a meeting with Ukrainian officials, November 30, 2025
During this period, Kushner, who is Jewish, built lasting relationships with Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia.
As Trump sought a ceasefire in Gaza, he again turned to his son-in-law.
Trump dispatched him and Witkoff to negotiate with Israel, Hamas and Middle Eastern powers. After the Gaza deal, Kushner indicated his role was only temporary and joked that he feared Ivanka would change the locks on their Florida villa and not let him return if he stayed away from home.
Yet the following month, Kushner went to Moscow with Witkoff to meet with President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin’s top adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Kushner “proved to be very useful.”
Role in Paramount
Kushner’s business interests made headlines again this week when it emerged that his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, was among the investors backing Paramount’s battle with Netflix to buy Warner Bros.
This added a political dimension to the affair: if this takeover succeeds, the Trump family could partially own CNN, the news channel most hated by the president.
Affinity’s financing raises questions.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) paid $2 billion in 2022 to Affinty, the New York Times.
The Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate Capital together brought in about $1.5 billion in 2024, Kushner said in a podcast last year.
Kushner’s company now manages $5.4 billion, according to a September statement.
A US Senate Finance Committee launched an investigation into Affinity last year, before Donald Trump’s return to the White House. In three years, Mr. Kushner’s company pocketed $157 million from foreign clients, including $87 million coming directly from the Saudi government with no return on investment for its clients, noted Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, emphasizing “Affinity’s total dependence on a small number of foreign government investors.”
“What people call conflicts of interest, Steve (Witkoff) and I call that experience and relationships of trust,” Jared Kushner recently argued on CBS.
