The Times reported last week that after the CEOs of Citigroup and Apollo Global Management attended White House meetings set up by Kushner, the two firms loaned the Kushner family business more than $500 million.
Furthermore, once the loan was received, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped an inquiry of Apollo Global Management.
Last spring, Kushner's real-estate firm sought hundreds of millions of dollars directly from the Qatar government, for its distressed property on Fifth Avenue, reports the Intercept. Soon after Qatar turned down the request, Kushner supported a diplomatic assault on Qatar that sparked a crisis continuing today.
Kushner is such an easy mark that officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways to manipulate him with financial deals, according to U.S. intelligence.
Kushner insists that he's done nothing wrong, and there's no direct evidence he has profited off his position in White House or put personal financial interests ahead of the interests of the American public.
But that's not the point. Conflicts of interest are always difficult to prove, which is why we have ethics rules to avoid even the appearance of such conflicts.
And it sure looks as if Kushner is using his White House perch to make money for himself, just as is his father-in-law.
It's as bad for a government official to look as if he's lining his pockets as for him to actually do so, because the appearance of corruption undermines public trust just as readily as the real thing. And trust is what distinguishes an advanced democracy from a banana republic.
But Trump and the members of his family he's brought into his White House don't give a hoot about public trust. They have utter contempt for the common good. Government ethics officials have compared Trump's administration to a game of whack-a-mole -- go after one potential violation, and others pop up.
Perhaps Kushner tells himself that the American public is already so cynical about big money's takeover of our democracy that his own apparent, or real, conflicts are chicken feed by comparison.
Which may be true. But by adding to the distrust, Kushner is doing his own bit to destroy American democracy -- actions almost as treasonous as if he colluded with Russians to make his father-in-law president.
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