NEW YEAR, NEW ROLE

Jared Kushner Absent From Iran Meetings as He Shifts to Oversee Trump’s Re-Election: NYT

Kushner’s absence from major events involving the Middle East is seen as a sign of his changing role within the White House.

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was not a part of the Mar-a-Lago meetings ahead of the strike that killed Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani, or in the Situation Room when Iran was launching an attack on American forces Tuesday, The New York Times reports. Instead of sitting in on a Situation Room meeting to discuss repercussions of the Soleimani strike, Kushner was partaking in a planned photo shoot for Time magazine, the Times reports. Kushner’s absence from major events involving the Middle East is seen as a sign of his changing role within the White House as he prepares to oversee Trump’s re-election campaign, in addition to other duties, like overseeing the construction of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. In the beginning of the Trump administration, Kushner played a central role in Middle Eastern policy, often circumventing traditional power channels within the State department, according to the Times.