Jared Kushner Rules Out Joining Second Trump Administration

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, said on Tuesday 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 remarked. “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. The couple 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.

Related Stories

“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,” Mr. Kushner added.

President Trump is on track for a potential third nomination as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, winning the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses, even as he faces legal challenges.

“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,” he added.

President Trump, who has steadfastly 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 Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has overseen social and economic reforms as well as 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.

Dorothy Li and The Associated Press contributed to this report.