On Friday, The New York Times reported that former President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is trying to raise money for his new investment firm in the Middle East.
"So far, he is having only mixed success," reported Kate Kelly, David D. Kirkpatrick, and Alan Rappeport. "Qatar, whose leaders saw Mr. Kushner as an opponent in the administration, declined to invest in his firm, a person familiar with those conversations said. So did the main Emirati sovereign wealth funds; Emirati rulers saw Mr. Kushner as an ally but questioned his track record in business, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions."
There is one government in the region that is coming to Kushner's aid, however.
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"The Saudis are more interested, according to four people briefed on their continuing negotiations," continued the report. "The kingdom's $450 billion Public Investment Fund is negotiating with Mr. Kushner over what could prove to be a sizable investment in his new firm, two of those people said."
In the Trump administration, Kushner was known as the former president's point man for helping to cut diplomatic deals in the Middle East, playing an outsized role in a series of agreements to make several Arab and North African states recognize the Israeli government — often at the cost of the United States legitimizing human rights violations by those countries. He has since founded an institute to promote the ongoing survival of these agreements.
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Kushner has presided over some high-profile investment failures in the business world, most notably his failure to turn a profit on a large office tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
