I’m going to go out and say it, but I think the most competent person in the Trump presidency, and the one to focus most on to understand what’s going on is probably Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband.
A little context: Kushner is from a rich Jewish family with a couple hints of corruption and nepotism. His father was prosecuted by Chris Christie, and also happened to be a billionaire.
My guess is that billionaires spend a lot of money on their kids and try to get them to be successful and set up well, leading to accusations of nepotism. Notwithstanding personal privileges, this nepotism seems to have been a great investment, particularly because he’s great at getting things done.
Here are some things he did that I find really interesting:
- Worked as campaign manager for DT in 2016 on a shoestring budget.
- Passed the criminal justice reform to pull support of minority communities right.
- Led to Abraham Accords, where Israel and Arab states played nice for Trump’s presidency.
- Set up Operation Warp Speed, which led to the fastest and most successful vaccine ever.
- Went to Harvard and then NYU for a JD MBA while running a real estate empire.
- Ran a newspaper, the Observer, profitably
- Produced the Project Alarmo, leading FB execs to call this the single best digital ad campaign
- Worked a USMCA to repackage NAFTA in a way that people were willing to get behind.
- Avoided the spotlight having done all these things.
I think smart Trump fans and critics should look more at the people behind the scenes getting things done to better understand the way the wind’s blowing.
Isadore Johnson's Website 