Jared Kushner’s global empire in the era of Trump
During Donald Trump’s first presidency his son-in-law Jared Kushner was involved in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the response to the coronavirus pandemic, a blockade in the Middle East, and the normalisation of relations between Israel and Gulf countries.
It propelled Kushner’s profile from a property developer best known for his years-long effort to salvage a $1.8bn investment in a Manhattan office tower and into a global power broker with deep access to the key players in the Middle East and the highest rungs of finance.
On his way out of the White House, Kushner translated his Rolodex into a multibillion-dollar business, a private equity firm called Affinity Partners that mostly invests cash for the state-backed investment vehicles of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
In a Big Read, the FT examined the ambitions Kushner has for this nascent but lucrative private investment empire and the potential conflicts of interest that could arise in Trump’s second term.
Affinity has gained attention from those on Wall Street to Washington since it was launched in January 2021.
Democrats have viewed the vehicle suspiciously and called for investigations into the fund. The fledgling firm’s initial $2bn fundraising mostly from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Kushner befriended, took many by surprise.
Now, Kushner is poised to seize the moment.
He will not take a formal role in the Trump White House this time around, freeing him to focus on his family and investments. Those investments range from high-profile property deals in the Balkans, to companies benefiting from artificial intelligence to bets on new trade dynamics in a deglobalising world.
Some deals, such as an ongoing negotiation for a waste management company in Mexico, may be derailed by Trump’s trade policies.
In an interview, Kushner laid out his vision for Affinity and his response to lawmakers who have characterised his outfit as a pay-to-play operation for foreign governments to gain influence with Trump.
In its first few years, Affinity invested sparingly, deploying less than half of its capital, moderate activity that Kushner says was a result of fears over corporate valuations.
The firm, which employs about 30 people and has seen staff churn, avoids buying companies outright, preferring minority equity stakes. Kushner views it as a more nimble investment operation that minimises administrative burdens. It is also lucrative for Kushner, the majority owner of Affinity.
So far, Affinity’s results are inconclusive. While some deals have gained in value, others like a stake in an Amazon aggregator backed by Adam Neumann have a cloudy outlook.
Kushner is now planning billions in new investments and recently struck two prominent deals, building stakes in Israeli insurer Phoenix Financial and billionaire Brad Jacobs’ acquisition vehicle QXO.
Notably, Kushner views the Phoenix deal as helping to build regional ties among potential adversaries. In it, he is ploughing cash from Saudi, Qatari and the UAE directly into Israel’s markets. A UAE fund had tried to invest in Phoenix in 2023, but was blocked by Israeli regulators.
Kushner says to his critics: “A lot of these people will say everything is a conflict. I am not going to let that stop me.”
He adds: “These guys won’t acknowledge [that] I have an incredible track record of success in the Middle East . . . I have those great relationships because of the success that I achieved, which was something that I was criticised for trying to do at every step along the way.”