WASHINGTON _ On the eve of his inauguration, President Donald Trump turned to his daughter Ivanka and joked that he "sort of stole" her husband, Jared Kushner.
With a trip to Iraq, announced on Monday after his arrival in Baghdad, it became clear that Kushner's role in the Trump administration has only grown bigger since then.
Trump's 36-year-old son-in-law seems to be everywhere for the president. He is known to advise on domestic policy and help craft foreign policy. Trump has given him special tasks as well, including an initiative to reinvent government, the type of project President Bill Clinton gave to Vice President Al Gore, and the job of brokering peace in the Middle East, an issue that has vexed lifelong experts from every administration for decades.
"If you can't produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can. OK?" Trump said at the inauguration-eve ball. "All my life, I've been hearing it's the toughest deal in the world to make."
Kushner is also taking a key role in shaping China policy ahead of President Xi Jinping's visit to Palm Beach, Fla., with Trump at the end of the week.
With that level of influence in mind, it's no surprise that Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, invited Kushner to get an on-the-ground look at the conditions in Iraq.
A statement from Capt. Greg Hicks, Dunford's spokesman, said Kushner arrived with Dunford and Thomas P. Bossert, Trump's homeland security adviser.
"Gen. Dunford invited Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bossert to meet with Iraqi leaders, senior U.S. advisers and visit with U.S. forces in the field to receive an update on the status of the counter-ISIS campaign in Iraq and Syria," the statement said, using an acronym for Islamic State. The statement noted that it was Kushner's and Bossert's first trip to Iraq.
In addition to his briefings, "Mr. Kushner is traveling on behalf of the president to express the president's support and commitment to the government of Iraq and U.S. personnel currently engaged in the campaign," the statement said.
The Iraqi prime minister's office released a photograph of him meeting with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, accompanied by Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Douglas A. Silliman.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer sought to downplay the degree of Kushner's direct responsibility for administration policy.
"He has a team that he oversees," Spicer said during his daily news briefing Monday, later clarifying that Kushner leads several teams focusing on different issues.
Spicer said Kushner's presence in Iraq does not signal less influence for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. "It's not a binary choice," Spicer said.
Spicer said Kushner took on many of his responsibilities during the presidential transition, when Trump had fewer staff experts to advise him.
Now that more of Trump's appointees have taken posts at the State Department, Kushner has deferred more to them, he said, adding that he still "brings a key perspective to this."
