The king was always naked, but he has a lot of sycophants.
30
New York Times really needs to tone it down. For three years you have been acting like a nagging spouse in a house with one room and no window. Let me allude you to another perspective.
Your economy is booming, he has started no new wars, reduced friction throughout the World. No water boarding, kidnapping, Amnesty International for the first time has not accused America of new human rights violation.
From Muslims perspective he has refrained to from killing 100,000 muslims/year directly and indirectly.
Yes, you being Pro - Democrat newspaper you may tout Bill Clinton or Obama, under Clinton's watch overwhelming number of minorities were incarcerated under so called effort to reduce crime. To punish Iraq's Saddam he stopped all form of aid to Iraq and independent studies estimate over million plus children died as a result. He stood to the sideline when Serbs decimated Muslim population. Europe and Americans only intervened when foreign fighters started appearing in Serbia i.e. Muslim Arab Afghan fighters. Obama did not change the incarceration law nor the Opioid in fact what did Obama do for the minorities who are and were wronged? It appears Obama did not want to be risked seeing siding with minorities at all cost. Obama care ok some good but could have done better.
So New York Times need to back-off, you have turned a normal person (Trump) into someone he is not - remember it take two to clap.
12
@Frank Bruni
Anti Semitism prohibits any valid criticism of Jared... careful where you venture.
12
eigh... sort of like how Hunter Biden's entire existence has been a long fail upward... Nepotism gonnna nepotize....
6
Like father like son.
14
As a dedicated reader of your column and newsletter, forgive me if I ask whether this column, its snarky tone, and its insubstantial subject—and I agree that adjective puts it mildly—are worthy of the energy you lavish on it. Tom Friedman makes a good point in his column today, that awash as we are in all things Trump we’ve lost our focus on important matters sucked into the black hole of his negative energy. We count on folks like you to change the focus. However much you point out Trump’s fantasy thinking in delegating enormous undertakings to his son-in-law, you nevertheless serve his purpose in keeping him and his on the opinion pages in a piece that feels less than urgently necessary, not to mention beneath you.
15
hahahaha! The best one yet, Bruni!
20
As usual ,full of apt and hilarious metaphors and ,otherwise PERFECT word choice
viz...
'pallid princeling'....
'cuddling....guilded umbrella......hallucinatory virtue'....
'chromosomal'.....
Ivanka's 'hourglass'.....
Jared's 'horse'
Congratulations !
37
"cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue"
- Wonderful writing! I'd wondered where they were.
31
Umm, I don't think he will need much time to finish up, after all, many people are saying that the Wall has never looked better, just about done, and no need to revisit that success story - it would just be bragging. Nope, Mr. Trump, if you are reading (!), rest assured, we all love the big new wall you built and it is so perfect, we will not need to speak of it again. Thumbs Up to you, Sir! Big Win for you! Atta Boy, Mr. President!
20
Jared's peace plan may well work but has been delayed because of the Israeli political situation. Has any previous plan worked?
3
Frank, you have outdone yourself (with the possible exception of your piece on Regan). I do miss your restaurant reviews, though. Now back to waiting for the news (we hope) on the dog we want to adopt.
4
Bruni is brutal here but honest. What else can you say about this beautiful couple other than "HUH?" They do seem to be all about the visuals most of the time.
What Frank doesn't mention is Ivanka's second job. What some people may not know is she's currently selling us voting machines made in China for next year's elections. I understand there are emoluments to be gathered in, but am I wrong in thinking a president's daughter selling us machines that count our votes when he is running for re-election isn't a particularly good idea? Or did the last election make me overly suspicious and I really need to cut her some slack? I would hate to be unfair, she's such a lovely princess just trying to get ahead in the world.
26
Not a single mile of new wall has been built. And the portions that have been rebuilt with the new design have been easily sawed through and climbed over. Kushner will not make any progress whatsoever. The two families are built on lies, deception, cheating and using their power to gain influence and make their fortunes. They are all bad news.
28
Say what you will about the POTUS, he's moved the needle. How frightening to think what one of his like with talent and competence could achieve.
3
Didn't he inherit Thorn Industries?
1
Ivanka has "created" millions of jobs? Where? For whom? Doing what? Getting paid how? Someone needs to do a deep dive into this one.
40
Is anyone is keeping track of all the business connections being set up for later payoffs by the corrupt jared and ivanka ?
Is there any doubt that the trump family must be cashing in ?
Who was awarded the contracts for the multi million dollar wall?
What are the skills that these two have for the "jobs" they have been given?
We are constantly being played by these morally bankrupt and dangerously inept people who are using the white house as their personal bank.
23
Thanksgiving is a good time to give thanks Jared won't ever be sitting at your family table.
26
Well, at least they are all making lots of money. That makes them Gods with their supporters, most of whom can't afford the rent on their doublewides because they spent over $60,000 on their pick up trucks, which they use to get to the food bank and back.
This entire family is an example of what good people never ever ever ever ever aspire to be.
31
I look at the photo of these two people who could have enjoyed a super privileged and pain free life as 'normal" rich folk... now they are tainted by ugly horrible globs of Donald idiocy that will never wash off. I don't feel bad for them, because they are willing participants.... but I'm sure glad it didn't happen to me. No amount of money would make up for waking up to "being them". I shudder.
18
Well, at least he's not Stephen Miller.
18
Frank...you have outdone yourself! I so need to laugh at this farcical situation and laugh I did. Thanks...and Gracias.
16
"Cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue" — not that Javanka or Donald have any idea how to close an umbrella. Trump and his family peddle outlandish propaganda worthy of axis powers in WWII. Javanka are a diplomatic illusion, both enjoying easy access to new licensing deals and bailouts of bad real estate investments (666 Fifth Avenue). Naked opportunists is right, Mr. Bruni. They inhabit the same delusional bubble as Trump. Unfit.
16
This is brilliant, as always. Reading Frank Bruni is like sipping a cup of hot broth on a cold day, pending an afternoon at the Louvre, taking a long walk on the High Line in a pair of comfortable shoes, and engaging in erudite discourse with a smart friend. We can’t HE be president?
12
He should be investigated for treason. I guarantee he’s done something to deserve jail. And he’s not that smart, so it should be easy to follow the mistakes.
15
As I’m reading, I’m thinking Peter Principle, (everything old is new again).
“ The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their "level of incompetence". In other words, an employee is promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent...”
However after reading the definition, Jared has no history of success / competence to warrant a promotion (beyond his shill-set (shill is the correct word).
10
“Your time and service — our time here — is finite,” she mused, and while I’d love to believe that she was prophesying her and her father’s imminent eviction from the White House . . . "
Oh my gosh, each sentence and paragraph was funnier and then the previous one.
This is one of my all time favorite articles Mr. Bruni. Your wit and humor only gets sharper and more clever with age (not saying that you are old. Heck, I think I'm old enough to be your mother).
It's articles like these that keep me going because we all need to stop and smile and laugh because the alternative is weeping and wringing one's hands.
Thanks for the chuckles Mr. Bruni and a very happy and safe Thanksgiving to you, all of your readers, and especially these wonderful commenters.
12
If these two vainglorious sycophants ever presented themselves outside the shrinking bubble of the Presidents twisted universe, to real people, the rain of rotted eggs and booing on these spoiled and worthless people could fill dumpsters. This phony princeling, who has lived off of daddy’s money too long, should be banished to Puerto Rico, with his smooth skin and underworked hands to work off his sins against this country. He’s going to be there a long time.
9
Does it take 14 million (and going up!) people to build a 2,000 mile wall? I'm trying to imagine the fantasy world that these people live in, and it's just not possible for me to fathom. Their ability to bend their own reality is impressive. At some level they must actually believe it.
12
Hilarious if not so tragic for the lot of us who see past the smokescreen, and pathetic for the deplorable minions who hang on every untruthful word uttered by this lying president. All he has to do to convince these minions of his accomplishments is to say it’s so, and it’s so. Ivanka’s millions of jobs, Jared’s wall, peace in the Middle East, steel plants being rebuilt —haven’t you noticed? It’s being done!! The lies are reality. I’m just thankful I live in the reality of truthfulness, that reason inhabits my consciousness, and that I will never be taken in by this powerhungry creature and his enablers, because I understand the meaning of the Constitution, and I still love my country no matter how dysfunctional it is.
12
Jared is really talented. So busy he never gains weight. A mover. He made those great deals to save his firm...well, it’ll work out in time. The ME plan was torpedoed by the usual suspects. Never had a chance but we knew that. Cmon, if they wanted peace they’d have surrendered by now! We’d give them the world, like Puerto Rico. Now the wall is different. There could be decent graft there. A real honey pot. He might get something done, but probably not a wall. But he may figure his time is only a few months of real ‘on the job’ time and then it’s campaign time 2020.
He and his wife, folks just love them.
9
Trump assigned several major tasks to Jared early 2017. Here is a link. They included solving the opioid crisis, Middle East problems, reinventing government, liaison to China, Mexico, VA problems, etc.
Not much progress.
https://www.businessinsider.com/what-does-jared-kushner-do-in-trump-administration-2017-4
8
Well done! Thank you.
4
Ivanka is no Fiona Hill.
14
Jared Kushner, Hunter Biden, Peter Galbraith, Chuck Robb, W, etc etc. DC seems to spawn these high achievers almost without end. Must be something in the water.
1
Can we mention that Jared Kushner is best friends with Bibi Netanyahu, who apparently has slept at the Kushner's during trip to the US? Or is that anti-semitism?
I love how people think Kushner wanted to bring peace! Kushner and his Zionist cronies (Greenblatt, Friedman et al.) were not interested in "peace" as much as just help Israel in stealing Palestinian land. And they with the Golan Heights announcement and Israeli settlements announcement, they have done a fabulous job.
Far from being incompotent, Kushner has been spectacularly successful in the Middle East. Too bad that his success comes at the expense of Palestinians and probably the long-term security of the US.
14
"But for naked opportunism and situational scruples, Jared’s my guy."
I've always enjoyed Bruni's columns for their content.
Nowadays, I am also noticing I like his writing. He's an amazing writer - should teach English Writing classes at some great humanities college.
10
Who else would take the job? An impossible job with an impossible boss who will expect you to lie and then stab you in the back anyway? Jared can have it.
6
Jared Kushner, Times Man of the Year and Nobel Peace Prize Winner! Nobody embodies incompetence and entitlement more than this 38 year old man of few words and fewer thoughts.
15
Great writing like this sees the reader figuratively skipping along the printed words, enthralled by the style as much as the substance. Mr Bruni is a wonderful writer. I show his stuff to my sons in the hope they'll be inspired.
30
While the wall itself gets most of the attention in the media, it is the land on which the wall was to be built which is the issue. Many property owners' land will have to be taken by imminent domain, with some challenging the taking in courts. Land covered under treaties is located in areas where building the wall will violate a treaty, leading to additional legal challenges. Much of the border in Texas is in the middle of the Rio Grande. The wall cannot be built in the river, obviously, and cannot be built in flood plains, either. Building the wall inward from the river (in some places up to a mile inland) will put US land on the Mexico side of the river. The issues go on and on. I hope Jared brings his magic wand.
15
That’s “eminent domain”...
7
Makes perfect sense. trump is looking for kick backs and favors and he cannot trust his sons to not cheat him.
This Jared's real value.
15
If they catch Mr. and Ms. out there actually building the wall and not merely its overseers, would you please be kind enough to induce the Times to publish the pics of these two hard working kin of the Prez who usually does this hard work himself!
12
Fabulous column!!
25
Come on trumpets! Where’s your brilliant defense of the Trump grifter clan? There is no defense.
31
Frank Bruni, don’t ever, ever change. Your columns are perfect. If you ever stop writing, I will have lost my will to go on!
23
These clowns are the tip of the fakest government we have ever had.
27
Hey! I'm pallid too. Anyway, another Potemkin ploy by the Trump crime family.
10
Jarred is the dauphin, the loyal royal worthy of his place before King Trump.
He’s good at going through the motions of his work without actually doing anything. Just empty Stagecraft.
The wall is a perfect assignment where incompetence can only do so much harm. We should honor him with his own Bob the Builder outfit.
21
Love this rather cynical but excellent article that reminds us again of how we are being robbed of our hard earned money in taxes to pay a con man like Kushner. And to do a job that doesn't need doing.
Odd that the Republicans are so anxious to investigate the Biden's, who have been cleared of any wrong doing, but cannot "see the beam" in their own eye, as the Bible says. These guys are wasting millions of dollars to further investigate people for made up problems like a VP's son being named to a Board of Directors of middling company in Ukraine.
They know no shame. Unfortunately it's not just Trump but the whole 40 % who still call themselves Republicans, and are hanging with him no matter what comes out about Trump's lies and deceptions. Instead they propagate fallacies made up by the Russians.
These guys would no longer be recognized by Republican of the past - like Lincoln, Eisenhower and even Reagan. They must be turning over in their graves.
20
He may have failed us, the citizens of the U.S., but he has not failed his father in law and others who benefit from not having an agreement. Keep you perspectives straight. Success depends on the objectives pursued.
6
I think he will make a great president.
2
@Kalidan
Of the local narcissists' club, except all of them think they should be the president.
8
By what possible metric? He’s a zero charisma, empty suit.
6
The story reeks of jealousy.
Get your nose fixed
10
Don't we owe it to the Mexicans to put our best man, Jared, in charge? After all, they are the ones paying for the wall, right?
32
Jared Kushner is a n'er do well, pampered, need nothing, creepy little "I inherited it all" rich little boy who would no know an accomplishment from falling down on the job. He demonstrates this over and over. No wonder Ivanka married him; he is very very similar to her daddy!
32
This is a good one..got me laughing. -Sometimes humor is the best weapon..
19
@mike Sometimes humor is all we have left.
5
Ha... I like the part about Ivanka 'fluttering into view.' Just like a butterfly, that Ivanka. So delicate and special...
29
"There’s no rest for the weary, and there’s even less of it for those who live at the crossroads of self-infatuation and delusion."
What a wonderful description of Trump and his cronies, including his daughter and son-in-law. Thank goodness they are inept and unable to further the majority of their bad ideas.
26
We can do all the talking, but Jered and Ivaka will continue marching and winning all the praises from Israel, Russia, India, and China. And there is nothing we can do to stop the dynamic couple.
Even if Trump cannot make the second term, which I doubt, this couple will have many glorious days ahead of them.
3
@Usok
Nice satire.
6
After all the treachery exposed during Shifty Schiff basement impeachment inquiry - any wonder that POTUS relies on a family member.
Oh, come on Mr. Bruni - the whole Deep State is against this POTUS - you know it and I know it.
If POTUS and Republicans had their way - most important parts of the Wall would have long been built.
And I dare say this young man has done an exceptional job with the middle East.
Now, senator Romney during his campaign against Obama wisely observed "in the Middle East, the best thing we can do is kick the ball down to the next administration."
And I suggest this young man has done more than kick the ball.
Using soccer as an analogy - he scored two corner kicks - recognition of Jerusalem and recognition of Golan Heights.
And in extra time - POTUS announced no illegality in Jewish settlements.
I say - give credit where it is due.
Keeping our Middle East process alive and our continued engagement there - and not have Arabs rise against these three goals - not bad at all.
@Neil
I, and the rest of the world, thought the goal was peace. A word you fail to use.
9
@Neil Your credits are more akin to debits. All Trump and Kushner have done is antagonize the Palestinians and exasperated the rest of the world.
9
Wasn't Jared in on the new NAFTA also? There are soooooo many things he's been tasked with doing that it must just be overwhelming for him. Indeed, he's about as successful at his government work as he was in real estate.
Both he and all the Trumps are terrific examples of why Andrew Carnegie was opposed to inherited wealth. One shouldn't waste wealth on the unproductive.
22
What 14 million jobs did Ivanka create??
27
Jared and Ivanka - self-licking ice cream cones...
39
They all are rolling their sweet dreams in the same snake oil; the smoke & mirrors from the ever-so-sincere C-Street sycophants for Jesus...The Latter Day Bankers for War, Genocide and other cultural events.
11
It appears the whole family are pathological liars with a big empty hole where a moral compass should be. Since they are such devout religious people, or at least they claim to be, they are aware of the sins of the father.
18
Two birds with one stone: dig up the Israel/West Bank wall, reinstall it over here. Presto! Somebody please tell Jarod.
15
After this JK will solve global warming.
17
This disaster of an administration occupies what I call my "nighttime ruminations", so I often get up and read some poetry. Normally, Billy Collins helps soothe me, but this morning I landed on Langston Hughes and his poem "Let America Be America Again". Written in 1935 and published in July of 1936, it helps to put things in a historical perspective while encouraging a call to action. I encourage everyone to read it!
10
I'm a bit older and have witnessed a few presidencies, and read about others.
Generally, I thought most Presidents attempted to put experts into important roles, and then sought their advice.
Kushner has been thrust forward with zero preparation.
Not that it matters, as Trump will ignore any findings from underlings as his gut instincts are paramount.
I only hope the youth get out to vote in 2020, because I have my doubts the seniors.
17
Nice poetic touches, Frank. The Roman satirists Horace and Juvenal would have appreciated this piece.
13
Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Will Rodgers, Dorothy Parker, Fran Lebowitz. Place them all in a large Jar, stir until very, very smooth. The Result: Frank Bruni. Cheers, and Kisses to Regan.
27
I loved this piece It is not often I agree with Frank, but he nailed Kushner. What a fop Kushner is. A bloodless fop. Is he going to get away with it too? Oh sweet justice I hope not. Didn't his Dad buy his Harvard education? Oh delish. It reminds me of the novel Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. The anointed ones who are trash.
24
I wonder if Las Vegas bookmakers will give odds on the likelihood of Ivanka and Jared getting his/hers Presidential Medals of Freedom before Daddy has to leave the White House?
It’s probably too much of a slam dunk given their unceasing work for humanity.
10
The sentence, "But when its corruption is being exposed and the drizzle of subpoenas become a downpour, they vanish, cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue." truly says it all about these two. Thank you
Mr. Bruni. That line will be my ohrwurm every time I see or hear either one.
19
You are such a good writer, Mr. Bruni. "Pallid princeling." "Hallucinatory virtue." Thank you for keeping the art of the wordsmith alive.
31
What did Jared solved in middle east?
10
Hey, when you're married to the boss's favorite, what can go wrong?
7
Awesome, Mr. Bruni nails this President and administration!
12
Despite his fanatical public followers, Mr. Trump earns no loyalty, even in his own White House and Cabinet. So he has to resort to unqualified relatives.
15
I subscribe to a government site that announces all kinds f recalls; baby furniture, toys, appliances etc. Today I saw one for Ivanka Trump scarves! They’re not passing the non-flammability test. Sad.
24
Ah, yes! Give the Wall project to the feckless son-in-law. Merry Christmas, Jared. Conan the dog would do a better job.
13
How has he solved the Middle East? By excluding the Palestinians from everything. Making Israel subject to trump's rule. Oh yeah he will help at the border in a big way. Can only hope & pray trump is removed from office or loses the elections. All the family will have to vacate the White House & lose their lucrative money making deals. Someone will need to inventory every item in the White House, both sides, to make sure the trumps do not abscond with any national treasures, toilet paper, or stationery.
12
I just hope Mexico puts up their own fence to safeguard their border integrity. Just look what happen to the Palestinians under President Trump and Jared's peace process. Mexico beware. Be very aware.
11
I would like to see a reasonable detailed breakdown of the amount of taxpayer money spent on the "diplomatic" and other government activities these two rank amateurs. More fuel for the impeachment conflagration, I should think.
15
The best thing about this article is that Trump, his spawn, and Jared will not understand the majority of the words in it.
26
Everything Kushner touches turns to dust, except for enriching himself. He is taking full financial advantage of the position he has crept into. I don't think there has ever been White House children more despised nationally than what we have right now. Granted Kushner is only and in-law and we have to remember Governor Christie sent his Daddy to prison.
13
If his accomplishments on the wall match those in middle east peace, I will be happy.
13
I am so distraught hearing Jared has switched to wall building.
He was so close to getting started on Middle East peace.
Solving the opioid crisis and rebuilding our infrastructure will also have to wait I guess.
26
He still doesn't have a security clearance, yes?
16
Great article ..... and, as always, great writing. But least we forget the one true success of Little Jared's DC career, the extortion of millions of dollars from Qatar to save Jared's NYC failed investment - 666 5th Avenue. Or was that just speculation? In any event, seems extortion is a family trait.
28
Yeah, they asked me to solve the Middle East 'problem' but I said I had to go to the gym. They said that's okay, we'll get Kushner because he doesn't do anything anyway. Ever.
14
What gorgeous writing Mr. Bruni. It almost takes the sting out of the horrible state our country is in. I dread Jared tackling 'The Wall.' Your piece is so beautiful it cries out to be read aloud, like a play.
Thank you for your wonderful writing. Happy Thanksgiving.
May eventually (hopefully soon) there will be better times ahead.
17
Let's report on how much young Jared has increased his wealth since Trump took office. On the foreign affairs front, no country in the world takes him seriously.
14
Jared Kushner is the living example of the term " empty suit". I can't imagine how he is going to face the remainder of his life, after he leaves " Public Service".
23
Having these inexperienced rookies making decisions that have such serious implications is the scariest thing I've witnessed in my 65 years. The entire globe is in danger because of them.
28
We're losing and they're winning AND a portion of our faults (and stars) are self-satisfied and self-referential gadflies like Mr. Bruni.
They're TERRIBLE but until WE turn OUR self-righteous indignation INWARD upon OUR sanctimony, we'll just repeat our 2016 a' la carte voting and they will have a puncher's chance to again knock us out.
Frankly put, we seem happier to be "right" and to lose than to compromise and win.
3
Was t Jared also to update the country’s technology and fix all the infrastructure?
14
@Ginger
Oh, he’s already done that!
While Ivanka was creating 14 million jobs, he was designing and developing the new Space Force that his father-in-law wanted. Jared is also revisiting the question of purchasing Greenland and, even though he doesn’t have a law degree, he is considering acting as Mr. Trump’s main legal counsel during the upcoming impeachment.
There’s no stopping this boy! He can do anything he wants,
no matter what or who questions his actions.
14
Alas. The golden boy has a combined MBA/JD degree from NYU. Doesn’t look like he ever practiced ( thank goodness!) and seems like he’s forgotten what he learned. Trump’s lead attorney? Make our day.
10
Sorry, but no news. This is exactly what privilege looks like. Privilege is not about the color of one's skin, it is much more. It is about one's connections. Obviously, fair skin color helps, but it isn't all, because millions of fair skinned people suffer due to their lack of connections. This is why parents are willing to break the law and pay others to "help" their children on college applications. This is the best example of the American "meritocracy" system, it doesn't matter if one's connections and lack of money aren't too notch.
4
Frank,
At your very best today. Thank you, thank you. Haven't stopped chuckling- made my day.
Happy Thanksgiving!
31
It is amazing what morons the Trumps believe Americans to be.
30
@Daniel A. Greenbaum There are those 63 million who voted for him. Who knew there were so many.
29
@Dazed, Confused & Befuddled
61 million but who’s counting? Certainly not Trump because he’d say everyone voted for him.
10
@Clearwater
62,985,106 votes (45.9%) of votes cast out of a population of 323.4 million. No, he says millions of illegal immigrants vote for HRC.
Will of the people? Where's that?
5
Q: Why nobody in the House have the guts to call/Subpoena both of them to testify about what exactly they doing in WH? How they justify having elven full-time taxpayers staff working for them?
24
Beautiful portrait light and fluid prose
14
The wall is the perfect pace for Jared's incompetence. If he continues as in the past we won't have a wall and that is a good thing. Jared is the man for the job.
27
Just look at how he solved the Palestinian problem. Plus, he helped the Saudi Price brush off the murder of the WaPo journalist.
11
This whole family is a walking, breathing, living example of why we should have a huge estate tax.
32
I worked as a teacher and psychologist with underprivileged NYC public school children. Jared - father got him into Harvard- Kushner is makes a mockery of those thinking we have a level playing field in America.
28
Frank,
I think you missed a perfect opportunity to use "lick spittle" in this otherwise fine bit of writing. Next time, please.
15
At least Jarod's public appearances seem somewhat dignified and are relatively rare, which helps disguise his vacuousness. Don Jr., on the other hand, brashly bumbles around like the insufferable boor I believe he must be.
26
This is exactly how I feel about these delusional silver spooner dummies
23
Kushner is a well known expert on Latin American politics, culture & worked as an archeologist during his doctorate....................ha,ha,ha,ha,ha.............
22
@Bob
He got his PhD from Trump University.
So we know he must be an expert.
11
If 'The Emperor's New Clothes' had a dry cleaner, it would be Jared.
28
Like any mobster, Trump only trusts immediate family members for the truly big jobs.
25
With Ivanka and Jared in power, It's like Daisy and Tom Buchanan from The Great Gatsby have jumped off the page and taken post in the West Wing.
17
Dear President Trump, If corruption is a problem, FIRST remove your hugly unqualified family members from White House jobs, THEN you can criticize others. Until then, your complaints against your opponent's offspring are embarrassingly laughable.
Does anyone but me notice the extreme irony of the constant attacks on Joe Biden's son by a President who himself put his own undeniably unqualified children into the White House, against the advice of the Secret Service? Are voters braindead, or just hibernating?
36
Does his assignment also include getting Mexico to pay for the border wall ? If it doesn't, it should - after all, this was one of Trump's most compelling promises.
17
Frank Bruni forever. That is all.
11
If there has EVER been a reason to not pay your taxes, THIS IS IT!
18
Such delicious writing! "But Jared is on the case!" "Donald Jr., so loud and hirsute" and "...for those who live at the crossroads of self-infatuation and delusion." I could die happy if Mr. Bruni could also direct his talents to commenting on the Kool-Aid apparently enjoyed by every single Republican, served up by sommeliers Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell. And those little digs you do so well, Mr. Bruni - reminds one of that classic reply to "How does one eat an elephant?" (Hint: one bite at a time, and preferably laughing all the way.)
8
In the kingdom of Trump you will find a dedicated, fanatical core of loyalists known as the "base", the would be king and his sordid cadre of princes, princesses, court retainers, and sycophants make a valiant effort to deceive the base that they are loved by the king and his court of crooks. All the while this shady group is stealing, conniving, and up to no earthly good. God save his base and the rest of America.
15
Laughed out loud hilarious... a column to be read out loud to my (fortunately) progressive guests at TG ... thank you Mr. Bruni!
15
Some real nice word wrangling here, Frank. Thanks.
15
Excellent piece as always, Mr. Bruni. It continues to boggle my mind that a good chunk of the U.S. electorate actually voted for, and worse, continues to support, this president and his family of grifters. We are all living the nightmares of Alice in Wonderland.
15
They will have to rename the Peter Principle the Jared Principle.
15
At least he didn't put Jared in charge of saving Christmas.
15
An Orthodox Jew would be just the person to put in charge of saving Christmas. But this year, it’s Thanksgiving that is under siege, so sez the prez. Trump shouldn’t have much trouble finding a turkey to take care of that liberal attack on a hallowed institution.
5
Kushner may be an ineffective fool, but if Trump wins in 2029, we may see Jared leading the GOP campaign trail in 2024. And no, we won’t see his tax returns either.
3
Almost as outrageous as the British "royal" family. A bunch of unqualified prima donnas, masquerading as self-important problem-solvers. Do we laugh or barf, or both?
They do disservice to real issues in need of real solution by real experts, and they cost the taxpayer plenty as they strut their vanity about for photo-ops.
13
At least members of the royal family have no real power. Javanka (Jared Ivanka) do, and their personal businesses have benefited from their being in the WH.
9
One only has to use the example of how J. Kushner negotiated a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, which was no deal, to predict how he would persuade Mexico or Congress to build a wall. What is not being discussed are the personal side deals and business relationships being developed by Kushner on the taxpayer's dime.
473
@Yusuke Naritomi I guess that's one of the reasons why Mr. Trump is unwilling to share his tax returns to the public.
39
@Yusuke Naritomi and I suspect Jared is playing the market in advance of daddy in-law tweets on China negotiations.
20
pallid princeling... Genius.
History suggests the president grants to JK the problems he no longer wishes to directly deal with. Let's hope that the trend continues with this issue.
This theory suggests that Mr. Trump is aware that JK is the black hole of administration policy, and is intentional in his abandonment of issues he assigns.
After all, there's a limit to how much damage a single president can do in one term. You need to dispense with the losers just as you would claim bankruptcy on a failed business venture - letting others shoulder the bills.
9
Does Mr. Brunie have in mind a a brilliant
member of the Democrats, who was able to bring all the sides together and make one happy family? This has been going on for decades. No one has had success. The chances are, no one will. Jared looked good for the job. He knew Netanyahu and he wanted to try. If Jared failed, then his failure is in a tie with all the others who tried who came before him. On the one side Israel shows no willingness to stop their efforts to expand their territory. On the other side they see them selvs as having homes demolished and land taken away. For their leaders, hate and armed conflict is a business and as long as they can carry it on, it is a very profitable business. If Mr Burni thinks he has all the answers, he should call up Jared and offer to pitch in and help.
1
@Ron
The point of course is that it's just a TV reality show. Jared is an actor playing a role. No one has the answer to Middle East peace, sure, but it deeply insults the real suffering of everyone for Trump to send this phony to accomplish nothing and take credit.
3
I read all your columns, Frank; and this is absolutely the best. The words are just perfect; the phrasing, the comparisons, and everything else just brilliant. You nailed it. The only thing I would have changed is a little more about Ivanka, that empty dress. But that’s OK because you really nailed her alter ego.
15
Yup, based on his prior endeavors, he will likely fail at this as well.
10
It's astounding that the GOP is opening investigations into Hunter Biden but Trump has his daughter and on-in-law sitting in the White House, involved in national security issues, and profiting off the Presidency. Well, maybe really not astounding at all since the G OP has become a corrupt cabal. This vacuous couple would be funny if not so dangerous. Trump has lowered the bar so far as to who is fit to serve in the Executive Branch that it may take a generation to recover.
32
'Pallid princeling' perfectly apt description!
22
is this a bad time to remind americans that if they pay taxes they are paying their salaries covering their travel on air force one and insuring their safety with round-the-clock security?
24
Did Jared solve the opioid crisis yet?
18
Were you writing articles like this about Hunter Biden too? Or just more tribalism and no core values?
@Asdf
Please everybody, see my comment earlier about when confronted with smart writing and thoughts and facts regarding the nightmare team that has burrowed into our White House - Trump supporters always discuss, infer, or repeat mythologies about others from the past or who have nothing to do with the present discussion.
20
You provide the proof, and Hunter Biden will be investigated. The problem is that you have no proof. Better that you focus on the tsunami of evidence pouring out today on Donald and Rudy wheeling and dealing in the Ukraine. Donald is wildly trying to distance himself from Rudy to no avail. Alas, they are joined at the hip, fellow co-conspirators. Nunes too is looking for an escape.
18
The Ukraine needed help setting up "3/4 houses that were carbon neutral.
1
The next president of the United States and thus the will of God.
1
Excellent.
4
Guided umbrella of hallucinatory virtue. I want to write like Frank Bruni when I grow up. Fun read.
12
This is one way to assure it won't get built. Maybe he should have asked "Brownie". I think he might have some free time: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hurricane-katrina-anniversary/heck-job-brownie-where-disgraced-fema-head-now-n400436
4
Where are the speechwriters?When Ivanka start's quoting the opening of a soap opera "The Days of Our Lives", I believe long-dead now, we know the White House is gasping and grasping.
She's about as "spiritual" as Nixon was a member of the Society of Friends.
The only thing I can think of is the 'Boomer Bible', particularly its "Book of Psongs", which begin with "Oh Money" and end with "Money".
And I quote: Money. Money money money money/Money money money money ... money.
Yes folks, break the laws, flaunt 2-week Inauguration jobs, most of which, given the number cited, must have gone to the folks who, based on all the photos and government body estimates, never really showed;
Lie, extort the President of Ukraine, lie some more - throw in a bunch of insults, and accuse everyone else of "treason", when you're the treasonous one, Donald.
14
Do not for a moment think that having failed to build this 'beautiful wall' is a failure. It is pure gold minted anew in each rallying cry and as a predictable trigger for getting the base onto its feet waving a sign du jour. It has worked for years now and both, the Congressional blocks and the media focus, have produced an unending grist for the POTUS mill. The Jared K nomination is just another chapter in milking media attention. What fools we are.
9
Trump's attempt to tilt the 2020 election in his favor by extorting a vulnerable ally to throw fake mud at his opponent led to the impeachment proceedings. Surely his comically unqualified daughter and officious son-in-law are raking in far more than Hunter Biden ever made at Burisma as they bop around the planet on the taxpayer's dime.
14
We're all still scratching our heads, wondering how it is possible for 60 million people to vote for -- and continue unwaveringly to defend -- a known liar and cheat who suffers from narcissistic personality disorder, whose policies are ruinous for our country and our planet, and who anoints family members like Jared Kushner (another narcissistic know-nothing) to "solve" some of our most critical and intractable problems.
But then I recalled that half of our country proudly and avidly supported the concept and practice of enslaving 3,953,762 fellow human beings. So, yes, it should come as no surprise that Trump has an unshakably loyal following.
17
Has it been forgotten that US "officially" moved our embassy to Jerusalem, the ceremony attended by Jared and Ivanka. Also the Israeli's can take over the West Bank with more settlements with America's leadership's approval. Apparently Jared was successful for his friend Bibi. How sweet it is that Bibi has been indicted. Can we be hopeful for our great leader to also be indicted?
24
Mr. Bruni,
I think you are missing the obvious. Jared has been one of the most reliable and successful Trump officials.
The Trump plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians relied on the same first principles as fighting corruption in the Ukraine and helping them defend themselves against Russian aggression.
Israel-Palestinian Issue:
Stated Goal: Peace Agreement
Actual Goal: Continued Support for Netanyahu in oder to secure Israeli support (incuding covert)for Trump reelection.
Actions: Terminate humanitarian, economic and education
aid to Palestinians.
Recognize Jerusalem as Capital
Reverse 40-year policy of stating the obvious: settlements are illegal
Outcome: Actual Goal Achieved
Ukraine:
Stated Goal: Build a bulwark against Russia by helping Ukraine overcome decades of government corruption.
Actual goal: Use U.S. influence to assist in Trump reelection by extorting new President to fabricate dirt against chief political rival and help chief reelection ally Putin by shifting blame for 2016 intervention from Russia to Ukraine as well as degrade usefulness of U.S. assistance by witholding aid designed to repel Russian incursion in eastern Ukraine.
Actions: see House Intelligence Committee Report
Outcome: Almost succeeded but Giuliani is a human hand-grenade.
Lessons Learned: Keep it in the family.
Perfect family connection willing to subvert the truth and the law to sell the Border Wall-- Jared Kushner!
7
14 million new jobs, Ivanka? Doing..what?
15
@zula Z He meant in China, not here
10
@Stevie Matthews You actually made me laugh, which doesn't happen very often in this milieu. Great zinger.
2
Great piece of writing Frank!
9
They called it the Peter Principle in my day.
If you have an incompetent boss, promote him to get him out of the way.
7
@dave, not quite how I remember the Peter Principle being described. It could apply to a competent person who was promoted to his or her "level of incompetence." In other words, a person could be a very competent engineer but after promotion, be a very lousy engineering manager.
1
Thank you for this wonderful article. It made my day. I couldn't stop laughing. Great title, too. And the last paragraph is excellent...Yeah, thankfully Jared is too incompetant for the task.
11
When Jared submitted his financial disclosure to the government for his current position, it listed 271 corporate positions, which I assume includes roles such as member of various boards. Obviously, no one can actually perform 271 different jobs. His taking on of more roles within the administration is just an extension of this same ego-stroking corporate silliness.
14
"Insert punch line here." And here. And here. And here. And here.
Guffawing at the ringmaster and his cult circus has made my day. Thank you, Mr. Bruni, for this beautifully written, hilarious piece!
12
“...cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue.”
This could not have been laid out any better with regard to these two; and it is also representative of everyone in the Trump Whitehouse, and pretty soon every single member of the Republican party.
10
"with a talent for exaggeration and misdirection that’s clearly chromosomal." is the product of a master wordsmith.
9
If Jared has a personal passion around criminal justice reform/real estate given his father's experience in prison, are there not still reforms to be made? Jared could take over corrections reform in Alabama prisons while simultaneously using his skills in creating profits by private entities. Maybe he could implement the pay-per-minute policy for inmates to read their I-readers while incarcerated? There are still so many pennies to be squeezed out of the pockets of the less fortunate.
8
Ivanka is nearing the age at which most people begin to meditate upon the unexpected consequences of his or her poor life choices. She must have seen something that others don't when contemplating Jared. Being the daughter of the worst president in US history doesn't seem to affect her much. Yet. I regret that I probably won't be alive when her autobiography is published.
8
I fear Jared Kushner's toutelege behind that other 'Prince' of Niccolo Machiavelli fame has been woefully incomplete. Yes, he obviously has well incorporated Machiavelli's admonition that it is "Better to be feared, than loved as a ruler"; and how a tyrant ought to always recall it is safer for them to "Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception".
As current events demonstrate, however, Kushner has failed miserably to read deeper into one of Machiavelli's most insightful teachings, when he tells his charge: "The best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people."
5
Tomorrow at our family celebration, I will give thanks for Frank Bruni.
24
Jared will cash in big from side deals from this huge wall construction---the man will leave DC next year with a couple of billion more than when he got there!
6
Trump needs his son-law in that position to make sure all the companies building it and supplying the material to build it give the proper, proportional kick back
15
The Trump family is just an insular tribe with all others considered existential competitors in a brutal world. They just do not respect anything but great wealth and power.
7
This rich guy is such a poor loser. Sorry for this simplification.
7
No need for an apology, as this is true. In the world of karmic could be's, he is looking directly into a black hole.
3
But the Biden's son!!!
6
Notice Ivanka's new haircut. She'll be running for something soon. Or Secretary of State, or other such unearned and unqualified position. It's all about Ivanka, and always has been
12
A blessing in disguise. Given Jared's track record this should insure little to no progress.
13
Trump does not care about the outcomes of Jared's assignments. What he does care about is 1) making a show of assigning an "advisor" to this task 2) not having to worry about the details himself and 3) if push comes to shove having a fall guy (yes, even Jared). It is much like requiring Zelensky to announce investigation of Biden and son on CNN without actually doing the investigation. We have reality TV government, not reality.
9
What bothers me most is Jared’s self-importance because it’s nothing more than a mirage. Reminds me of the Carly Simon song “You’re So Vain”. Without his father-in-law he’d really be a nothing, but owing to his father-in-law’s largesse, his imagined importance is nothing more than a wisp of unpleasant air.
12
To paraphrase Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road' - when you see a white man like Jared on a horse going nowhere 'you just gotta let him ride'. Down here in Australia I trust there will be a November 2020 sunset into which the whole Trump coterie of deplorables will vaporise - never to intrude further - while the damaged global psyche begins to heal. Dear USA it is you who can begin this process, none other.
12
@Alan
We're trying Alan. We're trying. Wish us luck, bigly!
7
Ugh! I’d rather Jarhead & Ivodka stay in oblivion. One can only take so much, with the Sr & Jr- & the emergence of these dolts just induces instant migraine.
10
"Jarhead versus the chop saw." Sounds like a B grade horror movie.
6
Quite frankly who cares what Jared does or doesn't do?
2
Agreed; also, I love the headline. It reminds me of the best headline I have ever seen (from the 1980's NY Post): "Headless Man Found In Topless Bar".
4
@sharon5101 - I care because they are sucking up my tax dollars.
2
There is no Trump offspring or their spouse that I would trust to tell me the right time, never mind having them in any leadership position for the country. The one exception I would make is Tiffany, who has been wise enough to dodge the spotlight.
13
Mr Bruni, thank you. Beautiful and truthful writing. I'm so glad I took few minutes from prepping my turkey to read this. Now, I continue cooking and prepping while being utmost grateful on this Thanksgiving for you and all honest and brave journalists who are now and will always keep us free, enlightened and even safe. Happy Thanksgiving
16
Jared Kushner is no joke - he is a truly serious threat to our national security given his corrupt dealings with Russians, Saudis and others and the fact that he should not have a security clearance.
When you combine his access to classified information and his corruption, it's scary to think what he's sold to other countries.
794
@marks : I agree with you. He & his really scary wife are a big threat to national security and always seem to back the black force.
61
@Judith
I think he lost his security clearance a couple of months ago
8
@Ellen I agree Judith. He and his wife were only put there because she is president's daughter and nepotism still lives, unless, of course you are the son of Joe Biden.
27
If we could buy Ivanka and Jared for what they're worth, and sell them for what they think they're worth, we could retire the national debt.
23
Good insight, Mr. Bruni. However, let me suggest another reason why Jared Kushner has been assigned to this task. Simply, Donald Trump needs to have an expert grifter who knows how to slide things under the radar successfully and make sure the full extent of the financial kickbacks show no paper trail nor electronic footprints. It's an old real estate and major capital project trick - it needs seasoned corrupt grifters to execute it properly.
First, how much will this project cost to build, and when does it have to be completed? As reported the cost is $3.6B.
Second, when does progress need to be accomplished? This is simple - November, 2020. Recall that stupid Trump pledge. ("Mexico will build the wall!")
Significant capital projects require planning, coordinated execution, and cooperation between DHS, Government procurement (GSA), and Qualified Contractors. Per haps a "fixed bid" proposal, but with every fixed cost contract, there are escape clauses which deal with contingencies and required deviations to the work scope. Therein lies where the Devil makes mischief on cost-overruns. Look for Jared to "manage" those unforeseen situations where things "have to be done" and those extra costs must be paid.
Basics on how grifters in 3rd world nations do this. 3 to 5% of the project gets kicked back, or "laundered payments" Say 4% on $3.6B and that is $144 Million.
Stay tuned...… massive corruption on its way.
If $
8
Jared doesn't need to be competent at anything other than Prince Consort to Princess Ivanka.
13
Sheer delight. Like ducks in a barrel, all darts in the bullseye Mr Bruni!
10
An excellent use for Jared’s talents, and for Donald’s. Give those men shovels and cement. Tell us when you’re done.
8
"cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue."
I just love that.
22
So many quotable lines.
14
"...she had created 14 million jobs since the inauguration."
When most people lie they include some truth to make the lie more believable. So why is it that Trump does not do so? He just pulls things out of thin air and defies people to not believe it.
Considering that the Labor Dept calculates that a total of about 6.5 million jobs have been created since Trump took office, how does Trump come up with Ivanka "creating" 14 million all by herself? It is such a blatant lie that it should have been the headline on every news paper and news site. "TRUMP LIES ABOUT JOBS"
But his supporters just shrug and don't care. And everyone else just laughs about the stupidity of the "president and his incompetent progeny. It has come to that.
9
How can he look anyone in the eye?
7
Jared is the dog on the roof of the car of the trump presidency.
11
@Dan in Orlando -- Do you mean "lapdog"?
1
Of course as usual, Kushner will be about as effective as a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man.
10
Mr. Kissinger should be concerned that he usurp him in all things political, diplomatic, and foreign policy. Where has Jared the wonder been hiding all this time!? Under the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Day Present of course.
1
What exactly did he do in the ME? Was he in charge when they moved the American embassy to Jerusalem and annexed the Golan, watching more and more settlements on stolen land against all international laws in WB? What did he do anyway?
One thing for sure, he was well paid even better than Hunter Biden we can be sure of.
7
Let’s not forget, the path to the trump presidency is littered with journalists who did not do their jobs...
5
Sorry Frank, but you didn't prove or disprove the tale about Ivanka creating jobs. Where, when, and how is the standard of good reporting. Please prove or disprove it.
@Joyce Benkarski You can't be serious, ma'am
6
"Pallid Princeling." Thank you Mr. Bruni SO much for this two word reference to Mr. Jared. Well done.
8
How much have we paid for no new wall?
5
For those of us with some exposure and experience with Mr Kushner, it is widely accepted that he is dumb as a post. And once revealed ( usually early on in any process), he simply reverts to rich kid.
Marrying Ivanka Trump is his greatest accomplishmeny; it will be his life's work , marking his rightful place in the universe.
Never has a man with so much done so little. In many ways the country is better off for it.
6
With 3/4 of our illegal population flying into this country, a border wall is irrelevant. Trump is doing nothing to stem the flow of white Europeans and Asians that are coming illegally. Nor is Trump and his anti-immigrant party doing the one thing that will slow the flow of illegals to a trickle. Trump and the Republicans refuse to may the federal E-Verify program that allows all employers, for free, quickly check to see if a job applicant is here legally. Why? Because in truth American employers would have to raise wages, add benefits ain improve workplace safety in order to hire American workers. And American would have to accept those hard, dirty jobs.
5
Investigative journalists may uncover sleazy situations where the Kushners are cashing in on the presidency. Jared selling condos to rich Chinese buyers offering a meet and greet with Big Daddy Trump . The sales all took place in "An Opportunity Zone " intended to help poor folks but in reality the GOP put into law to benefit real estate developers like Kushner and Trump. Self dealing is the family M.O. phony self promotion is the family tradition with truth an inconvenience.
5
Ivanka now sports a power hair cut. Be very afraid.
7
How did this guy get a job (or it seems, many jobs) in things that he has no qualifications for, has no experience in, and has no clue what he is doing or supposed to do? Oh, right... But, really, if he is getting paid anything for this we should be ashamed of ourselves for letting this happen. Or maybe he just gets kickbacks from the people he sets up...
3
Jared & Ivanka were supposed to "contain the president’s ego,
blunt his cruelty" but who's supposed to "contain their egos,
blunt their cruelty?
449
@Jonathan
Daddy Trump's impeachment trial should take some air out of their sails.
41
@Tony: I sure hope so.
30
@Jonathan Badgers of the same hole.... She is a business woman. I never expected she would act for the better of the country. Like father, like daughter. Her ambition is no different from his family.
26
Mark my words. If Trump gets another term, and after that one he can't get a third, Jarod will run. Keep it all in the family.
2
So well put Mr. B.
"cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue"...home run!
I leave all the other stellar comments to the other 1104 people (so far)
8
Trump just keeps making bad choice after bad choice after bad choice.
So Trust fund baby, Jared Kushner, has solved the Middle East problem?
In reality, everyone knows Kushner spent most of his WH time trying to use his presidential connections in the Middle East and China to beg for refinancing on his $billion personal 666 property in NY. First things first.
Interestingly the Qatar Investment Authority was actually a major investor in the Canadian Brookfield Asset Management which finally bailed Kushner out,
So now Kushner has moved down the presidential bucket list and is now assigned wall building.
Hahaha....Good luck Jared.
First problem: What do you do with a completely "impenetrable" wall that is "easily cut right through" with a cheap $100 tool from a hardware store?
Stay tuned for the "Tales of Jared's Wall".
I'm sure our fresh faced Jared can convince Mexico to pay for the wall as Trump promised.
3
You outdid yourself on this piece, Frank, and that's saying a lot! On the rare occasions I can detach myself from the abhorrent day-to-day dysfunction of the Trump administration, and just view all of this with amusement, Jared is my favorite character! I realize that any press feeds his ego, but that's not a good enough reason to ignore his numerous "contributions" to making America great again.
4
My country shames me. Hope has dwindled. Please Republicans & White House provide scholarships and legal support to the massively dismayed to secure homes and residence anywhere but here.
4
If "past is prologue" then the wall will fail bigly, and that would be one good thing to come of putting the inept Jared in charge of the border wall.
Loved your description of Trump's boys - "one hirsute and the other mute" - to paraphrase.
3
Unfortunately, although the entire border wall will never be built, the bungling efforts to build it will destroy huge swaths of irreplaceable desert habitat. Google "Cathedral Pipe Cactus Nature Preserve" and weep.
6
I needed to hear these words. I love your accuracy in pinpointing our thoughts. This was a gem. I feel better that someone else gets these "people".
4
Mr. Bruni: If this administration was half as good at their jobs as you are at writing, we’d still be a fine country indeed. You’re a treasure!
5
Those who believe Trump's plan to build a 'beautiful' wall along entire Mexico/U.S. border as a vanity project as best, should take comfort in Jared Kushner's new assignment to oversee the wall's construction. You only need to take close look at Kushner's other assigned tasks to see he accomplished none. If he actually builds any new wall, let's make sure he also gets Mexico to pay or reimburse us. After all, we wouldn't want Trump not to fulfill his campaign promise that Mecico will pay for the wall. Promises made, promises kept.
2
I wonder if anyone remembers how the Republicans reacted to Hillary Clinton chairing the task force on President Clinton's health care plan in 1993. They were outraged and, although Hilary Clinton was a capable, competent, lawyer, they were screaming "nepotism" at the top of their lungs.
The Republicans then followed that by joining forces with the health insurance industry to produce a series of highly effective TV ads - known at the time as "Harry and Louise" ads - which implicitly maligned Hillary Clinton and significantly damaged her popularity.
So could anyone explain why Democrats are acting so timidly toward the roles that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are playing in the White House? And I am staying away from the fact that Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, has been given carte blanche to conduct US foreign policy.
31
@Eddie B.
Part of the explanation is that there are as many Democrat policies as members of the Democratic Party.
More seriously I wouldn't be surprised that bot Republican and Democratic parties will implode as the Whigs and Democrats did in 1860 - 1865…
@Eddie B.
"And I am staying away from the fact that Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, has been given carte blanche to conduct US foreign policy."
Apparently Mr. Giuliani needed a hobby. I have a hard time seeing him as a cybersecurity expert.
4
The wall was never fully funded due to never Trumper Republicans (Democrats as a party are always lock-step these days and would never agree to anything that gives the President a win). Look at the price congressional Republicans paid for their oppositional anti-Trump stances in 2018. (On the Senate side there were people who had lived too long, like self-aggrandizing John McCain, who were responsible for the failure of some important reforms.) But now...just wait!
In contrast to Mr. Bruni, I see Jared and Ivanka--at least in their official roles--as articulate, self-effacing, committed to implementing the President's agenda. Looking forward to more of what you call "failing up"!
1
@toddchow Yeah, it's sad how everyone forgets how Javanka solved the opioid crisis! Sarcasm intended.
3
Let no one forget that early in his tenure, Trump could have gotten billions for his wall/barrier/fence and other border security measures in exchange for permanently legalizing upwards of a million Dreamers in a deal offered by Congressional Democrats. But he rejected it and repudiated it, most likely to cater to the most extreme anti-immigration hawks in his party.
17
I worry when we focus on all the horror and incompetence of this administration lest we forget the lesser minions who busily destroyed the EPA, the Interior Dept., the Judiciary, and caused all the other behind the scenes damage. It will be a long time before our air and water and public lands are restored, if that is even possible.
23
Their attorney is Abbe Lowell, the best in Washington and arguably the best in the country. It would not be surprising if he’s warned them to steer clear of most of the goings-on. Too bad the Donald won’t heed legal advice.
5
Another fine honest mini-assessment by Mr Bruni of our executive crime family in inaction. Now, has Jared fixed the Veterans Administration yet already? Ah yes, dry hair, unsoiled suits and perfect posture in photos are the best Jared and Ivanka can offer. And yes, I believe Mexico Will pay for the trump gated gated (yes, double -gated) residential family compound surrounded by a beautiful high wall when they eventually and forever take leave of Washington.
11
Federal Contracting 101: Proper overseer of construction jobs are the contracting officers for whatever Federal agency awarded the contracts. IIRC in this matter that would be the US Army Corps of Engineers; Jared is well advised to stay out of their way.
Kushner can only interfere and be a meddling nuisance. His real job is getting photo ops for Trump's re-election need to feed anti-immigrant hate to the GOP base.
13
I will be so glad when the Clampetts finally leave Washington, they are just caricatures now.
24
Not fair to the Clampitts. As goofy as they were Jed was thoughtful and well meaning.
6
There are billions of dollars to be stolen with shady contractors involved in this fantasy wall building so for once I would suggest, Kushner has a gig for which he is ably suited.
16
All Trump knows is private family businesses. All Jared knows is private family businesses. All Ivanka knows is private family businesses. All of them have presided over failed businesses that they ruined, most of them with overwhelming debt.
Is there any doubt why they are treating the federal government as if it was their own private business, saddling the country with debt, and running the federal government in circles?
17
@Quoth The Raven
The Trump clan assumes America is theirs for the taking.
2
You forgot to mention that he's also in charge of Trump's re-election campaign! And how many millions did we spend on his doomed-from-the-beginning attempt to broker a Mideast peace deal. He's in charge of so many things because he's also looking for opportunities to network to enhance his future business opportunities. This family is about serving themselves and not the country, a fact that does not seem to bother Trump's supporters. No doubt some day we'll see Jared running for President himself. When small men cast large shadows, the sun is surely setting.
24
Enjoyed reading the column.Seeing how the administration and republicans act everyday is an American disaster.
9
President Trump has missed a bet here. In view of Jared and Ivanka's glorious record, they should be put in charge of his re-election effort immediately. That will surely provide a result which sixty percent of the country will heartily approve.
7
I agree with the substance of this, but why the repeated references to physical attributes? How is Jared's "pallid", "smooth-cheeked" face relevant? Ditto Don Jr.'s "hirsute" condition? Plenty of legitimate material to work with, Frank. Why resort to petty jabs at cosmetics?
4
@Link Olson
If it was allowed it would be correct to describe these monsters with every bad word available.
7
I'm guessing this move is to shift the blame for the failure of the Wall onto Jared. A most convenient scapegoat.
5
I want to succeed in the things I do. I expect most people do. There are times when I have, and the feeling is exhilarating. But there have times when I merely appeared to succeed, but I knew in my heart I had not. As I'm sure most reading this know, the feeling is decidedly not the same.
I do not doubts the Trumps, in this case Jared and Ivanka, have a pathological need to succeed. The last three years or more we've seen herculean efforts to make them appear to succeed, only to watch them fail in flames on a national stage. That would cause the acid in my stomach to churn at a level that prevented sleep. Which leads me to ask: Forget about the effects of the actual harm they've done, how do Jared and Ivanka sleep at night?
4
@CS from Midwest - Success to them means lots of money for very little work and no ethics or principles.
3
"...investment in fiction." I intend to borrow that phrase (with attribution) often. Mr. Bruni, I believe that sums up the entire Trump ideology.
Thank you for another well written comment on the Trump presidency.
11
After witnessing the unwavering dedication and integrity of public servants Marie Yovanovich, Bill Taylor, George Kent, Fiona Hill, David Holmes, Laura Cooper and the others who came forward to take the oath, the thought of the smarmy Kushners dipping their well-shod toes in international relations of any kind is truly abhorrent.
1213
@Mercury Well at the very least this should divert Ivanka from inserting herself (unwanted butting in) in conversations with serious people at international gatherings.
I'm sure her fashion tips will be missed though.
41
@Mercury . . .luckily, the wall, or what's supposed to be the wall, is on our shores.
18
@Mercury :Marie Yovanovitch, according to "oui dires,"gave Ukrainian government names of NINETEEN OFFICIALS whom Mme Ambassadrice did not want to see prosecuted, so what is that but meddling in a foreign nation's internal affairs?Neither Taylor, nor Kent, when asked what were the high crimes and misdemeanors that our president was guilty of, "sont restes la bouche cousue,"were silent.Sondheim used the verb"opine," a no no according to Strunk and White who considered "opine"to be an incorrect use of the language, and the word "presumption" too many times to be credible.Recommend that if u are following the hearings, that you follow the testimonies more conscientiously, and in a more informed and disinterested manner!
Like others who commented, I thought this was hilarious. Very well written and very much to the point regarding Jared and Ivanka’s contribution to improve our way of life. I can sleep more soundly now knowing that ‘Jared’s In Charge’.
My compliments and thanks to Mr. Bruni and all of the staff of the Times.
14
Jared has solved the middle east problem; peace at last? OMG, where have I been, I missed this news. But thank god, Jared is such a stable genius.
9
He solved it by saying peace, no, let’s just end the charade and say we side with Israel and to heck with the rest. Done.
1
What do you expect? "Like father-in-law, like son-in-law" Two ignoramus leaders, blind leading blind,and this country has had the misfortune of having an incompetent family leading us to...oblivion?
7
Wonderful snark. Great column!
Like Donnie Jr, Ivanka, and the Don himself, all Jared ever did well was be born into wealth. All the rest is failure spun shamelessly as success.
Apparently you really can fool some of the people all of the time.
22
Obviously the first thing that has to happen is , working in conjunction with our good friends in Mexico, we need to ban Sawzall's and Carbide Blades with in 100 miles of the border. We can't have these deadly tools turning Trump's Big Beautiful Impenetrable Wall into Swiss Cheese before the concrete is even cured. Of course then there was the incidents where all the Barb Wire that the Army installed along the Wall in San Diego was stolen with in 2 months of being put up. Maybe we need to add wire cutters to the list. Oops! I forgot about the tunnels, so I guess shovels and picks also have to go, then there are the ladders. . . . . Umm, Well. . . .Never Mind.
Just one question Mr. Kushner, you do know which direction is South?
Hmm. . . . Could someone get Mr. Kushner a compass?
10
Trump’s narcissistic, over-privileged and very clueless daughter and her equally overprivileged, clueless husband are nothing but immoral charletans and grifters. And it’s frightening that they may stay in the political limelight, along with the other Trump kids-grifters for the rest of my life. God help us all.
18
Let’s see what anyone but Hillary voters have to say now.
5
Not fair criticism !Unless we forget the marathon failed efforts of John Kerry in the Middle East !
2
I’m reasonably certain that John Kerry wasn’t Barack Obama’s son in law. I’m quite certain he had better skills and credentials than jared.
8
Imagine the scene at the border. Jared stands in front of dozens of hard hat construction workers. In his soft, feminine voice, he urges them to go the extra mile ( so to speak ) for Daddy Trump ..... or else! Future historians will look at the Trump Trash family and what they will have done to the country and will be astonished that we citizens let it happen.
9
I confess, I had a pretty snappy, snarky comment all deftly crafted to post here…because Frank Bruni, whom I adore, I love your snark!
But then, I thought the better of it. If I can’t marshal some “shared humanity” for Jared Kushner for Thanksgiving…I am pretty sure that puts me in a league with a whole lot of folks in Washington who have all but left behind their humanity.
So, here goes…
I am choosing to muster up some genuine empathy and compassion for Jared Kushner this Thanksgiving 2019 and here’s why…
Only one of two things is occurring right now at the White House between Jared and his father-in-law…
One, a whole lot of delusion, machinations, and manipulation about, “The great job my son-in-law Jared is doing with peace in the Middle East, and lots of other really important stuff, and all around the world. He's all around the world for me you know? So now I'm giving him a really big job, I'm giving him the wall. ”
Or two, Jared is at the receiving end of a whole lot of overt and covert emotional manipulation and criticism from the President.
Those are the only two ways we’ve ever seen President Trump operate…even with family.
So, though I do not agree with anything Jared Kushner stands for, has presented, or has proposed…God Bless you and your family Jared.
I do not wish you good luck with that wall, but nonetheless…yevarekhekha hashem.
4
have you ever seen in the same sentence the word spiritual and ivanka , what about jared with the only idea of getting the 666 building refinance by the Saudis that killed our journalist , i meant dismembered,and the twenty patents given to ivanka by the Chinese dictature, I guess at the dinner table tomorrow , the word of the day won't be Thanks , it will be mission accomplish.
6
I’ve been underemployed since June after I got laid off. Reading about losers like Jared Kushner who haven’t worked a day in their life and have no actual qualifications for the tasks they “undertake” is absolutely infuriating.
21
You have to wonder why Trump does this. Does he not see that Jarad doesn't actually achieve anything, or is it that he doesn't really care if the job gets done, only that HE'S being seen as being "on the case."
5
@LJMerr In the Mafia, family are the only ones you trust. You watched the "Godfather" movies didn't you?
1
How does Jared look anyone in the eye?
4
Wow, if there's a silver lining to the mess in Washington, it's that Frank Bruni's sword-like pen gets sharper the worse it gets.
8
Based on some of the comments here it dawns on me that, still trickingly so, more Trump fans read the NYT. That is progress.
1
This is fantastic news! The wall will never get built now!
The bad news is that the Trump/Kushner family will profit from it somehow.
11
I believe it is clear that money is Jared's God and goal. A low estimate may be $82 million for last years take. Trained by a father who was a fraudster and criminal, Jared brought those skills to the WH and his marriage to the woman who's wispy voice he also possesses. I am astonished that trump fans aren't grossed out by the limp and buffed skinned couple. It looks like someone shines them each day as they speak a bespoke language of empty meaning. If it weren't for appearance, one could easily conclude they are in the mob....
8
"The pallid princeling" is simply brilliant, Scott.
7
@lareina Apologies to Frank!
1
A little light history here.
Daddy, Charles Kushner is an American real estate developer.
In 2005, he was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.
The witness-tampering charge arose from Kushner's act of retaliation against his sister’s husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators.
Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record an encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister.
He was sentenced to two years in prison, and served 14 months at Federal Prison Camp, in Montgomery Alabama before being sent to a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey, to complete his sentence.
Charles Kushner father came to America from the USSR.
Now let’s talk about 666 Fifth Avenue shall we?
10
@WhatTheWow
Yes, and none other than Chris Christie prosecuted him.
I heard Christie say in an interview that it was one of the most foul and disgusting things he had ever prosecuted - and he had seen some foul and disgusting things in his day.
1
Jared: Opening the door. "Honey, I'm home."
Ivanka: "How was your day at the office, dear?
Jared: Good. Mexico loves us, and by the way, your father says we won't have to sit at the kids table this year.
4
The only thing we can be reasonably confident of is Jared has encrypted back channels on platforms such as What’s app and others to Russian oligarchs, Turkish thieves and Saudi butchers as he pursues his sick greed in the service of his crime family.
8
Middle East Peace? Jarrod can't even solve Mid West Peace. Aspen is a good start, though.
2
Thanks, Frank, for the humorous take on the "pallid princeling" (brilliant) and his dopey wife. I am among those Americans who can't figure out why the Republicans are so worried about Hunter Biden when we have these two birds nesting in the
White House.
9
Jared Kushner aka Mr. Ivanka Trump has risen fgar beyond his level of competence and ability. Hey, Jared where is the Middle East Peace that you were going to deliver? This will be a bonus for the taxpayers for with Kushner in charge we know the wall will never be completed. The Trump family criminal enterprise keeps rising to new heights of incompetence.
6
Three words: a wonderful article. Get' um, Frank!!
5
I can't wait for these two to be indicted, convicted and imprisoned--and the best part, PUBIC SHAME, and social shunning. How much have they made in the last 3 years? Something like a hundred $million dollars? What are their relationships with China and Saudi Arabia? What's this about Hunter Biden? Really? Really?
8
And, will Jared get Mexico to pay for the wall? Inquiring minds want to know!
4
But, his wife has excellent taste in clothes.
3
Seldom does one word so aptly describe the current Republican Party of Donald Trump:
kak·i·sto·cra·cy
/kakəˈstäkrəsē/
Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.
"The danger is that this will reduce us to kakistocracy"
a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens.
plural noun: kakistocracies
"The modern regime is at once a plutocracy and a kakistocracy" . (From the Google online dictionary.)
2
Ah yes, place your trust in the unqualified, arrogant, entitled, self-dealing, inexperienced, incompetent shadow fixer who has so far accomplished a lot of nothing, except maybe to add zeros where they count most for Kushner--to the loan amount figures received by foreign entities to bail out his 666 fiasco.
Does the Trump base really care about any of this? No, they're too dizzy from so much winning as proclaimed by the demagogue in chief.
3
Scarlett Johansson's "Complicit" skit on SNL still holds up. It's just more sad than funny, now.
2
“The pallid princeling.” Priceless!
2
“Pallid princeling”: perfect!
3
Does he do windows, too?
3
You know why the White House's first couple continue look so happy even though we cynically scorn them for unparalleled ineptitude and total detachment from reality?
Because they are laughing all the way to the bank. Like a mafia boss who opens a pawnshop as a front for his illicit businesses, the White House is a front for Jared and Ivanka.
I suspect that on the back of promises for access to the President the royal couple are traveling the world striking lucrative business deals that no doubt make Burisma look like a lemonade stand.
7
Ever wonder why this is the first so-called first family WITHOUT a pet?
Look no further than all the children and their wives....descendants of the the self centered short fingered vulgarian.
Animals don’t like that quality in human beings. Unconditional love goes so far.
8
Ridiculous, yes. The administration should consult with Israelis, who know a thing or two about border security walls.
1
Kushner's failing upwards reminds me of Pete Buttigieg's failures as mayor of South Bend. The Republicans can't admit that Jared is always failing; and, so too, the Democrats can't admit Pete's failures.
He did 'solve' middle East huh. Russians now has a foothold, Kurds now hate the US, Daesh is active again, the Muslim world is revitalizing against Israel and its minion the US thanks to the latest declaration that settlements on Palestinian land are now Israel; Saudi, the country of the radicals that launched 911, is spreading it's message of radicalism and is weaponizing royally, yemeni children dying of hunger are now only a footnote in the news, Iraq is in turmoil; Iran restarted it's nuclear problem...
Peace?, what do we need peace for if we have nuclear weapons.
This hateful regime that rules us is bringing Armageddon very close. No matter how visionary and effective next government, it takes far more time to fix something than to break it.
Already there is no fixing of Latin America after disastrous successive US interventions: cold war backyard spread weapons and corruption, drug war spread more weapons and corruption. Nearly half the gun deaths in the world happen in Latin erica, which has only 8% of world population. American weapons, American dollars buying bananas, wood, soy, beef, cocaine.
What comes next.? Whatever it is Jared has a good record of creative future disaster making.
1
Frank, you cast aspersions on Jared’s competence to build The Wall that is so desperately needed to contain the hordes of murderers, rapists, ISIS fighters and welfare babies pouring over the border. Building this wall requires seizing and kicking people off their private property. It seems that you conveniently forgot that Jared has deep experience and expertise with eviction. He’s perfect for the job.
2
That Trump only hires the best people is the joke of the century.
4
Delicious.
2
how has jared skirted the multiple scandals? you can't tell me he wasn't in on ukraine either. the royal couple has dinner with the king court jester every night...wouldn't surprise me if jared was behind president ha ha's decision to hold back the funds.
Tell us again about how Trump is concerned about Corruption, Nepotism, and Hunter Biden...
4
The breathtaking incompetence of Trump Inc is infinite!
Jarvanka/Junior/Eric are the Peter Principal in action.
Frankly speaking we are very lucky that the gang that couldn't shoot straight have managed to scare away any people with the ability to enact most of the destructive impulses of reality star Donnie.
2
Thank you Mr. Bruni. As usual, you're one of the few voices of reason left in American media. I have no idea why CNN continues to have Alice Stewart interviewed as a Trump commentator and True Believer who's bothered by nothing Trump says or does because of her belief in God and Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Saviour. She now proclaims like that phony Rick Perry that God has ordained Trump as King of America. When is someone at CNN finally going to critique crazies like Stewart for her delusional statements?
2
I don't care for Mr. Kushner or his wife. I find them superficial and tiring to the extreme.
8
Thank you. So funny!
3
When is this train wreck leaving the station, from the locomotive to the caboose?
3
FRANK BRUNI - You are indeed -magical with the written word !!
Glad I'm completely obscure & out side your sights...
Jared is certainly a meely mouthed "Tool" he'd be living a very different life were it not for his 2 Daddy's that continuously PROP HIM UP Despite his failings!
2
Perhaps Trump finds new jobs for Jared thinking that there must be something this insipid little princeling might actually be able to accomplish. Hope springs eternal!
One would think that Trump would task a senior member of the Army Corps of Engineers ( perhaps someone with an engineering background) to manage and supervise the building of the wall.
But then of course you realize this is the same guy who chose Giuliani to be his personal attorney.....d
5
I couldn't wait to read this after learning late afternoon that Jared was going to be handed another god-forsaken project that demands his unique talents: obfuscation, interfering, and total lack of leadership acumen.
I've read the princeling blends arrogance with gross incompetence. That Harvard degree purchased by his Dad clearly didn't make much of a dent.
But when you reported the "wall team" finds him annoying, my immediate thought was, sure-- every bit as annoying as the costly, imperious, ugly wall itself.
4
Trump values Loyality over Competence...and because he is willfully ignorant about how Government works, he is not even able to identify competence when making his personnel decisions.
1
Simply this : They are Daisy and Tom, in “ The Great Gatsby “. Rich, entitled and CARELESS. Swanning about for their own pleasure, wrecking careers and destroying Lives. Someone else must clean-up the damage they have wrought, someone else must mourn. They are the worst of American Rich, and a curse on us All.
VOTE 2020.
7
@Phyliss Dalmatian ... Yes Phyliss,more contemptible than even the Kardashian clan who are merely silly and superficial.Ivanka & Jared are truly some kind of cosmic joke for which we are being punished.
2
I have a very low opinion of both Jared and Ivanka.
Two people who exude arrogance and entitlement while they
depend upon the worst kind of nepotism.
Even so, I think this article is beneath you, Mr. Bruni.
You take too much delight in sticking a fork in Jared, who is
a very easy target.
I don't think we should try to out-smug the smug.
You can still state the issues and Kushner's poor record without adding to the polarizing echo chamber.
So Jared who thinks he is fearless because he refuses to wear a belt is going to build “The Wall”? Are we reallly talking about the “the Jared” the feckless real estate/media mogul whomthe Trump family deems a “wiz kids ignoring the fact that he is 38 years old and has not one quantifiable or verifiable success since joining the administration 3 years ago? THAT JARED?
For those of us who detest the idea of a wall then Jared is by far the very best person to put in charge of the project! If twenty five of new wall have been built to date, by gosh the little dynamo might actually build 25 miles more!
But for those ardent Trump supporters, I suggest that Stephen Miller contract the job out to Home Depot or Lowe’s.
“Fails Up”, I thought the article would be about Hunter Biden.
The hypocrisy of trump carrying on about Hunter Biden is in sharp focus in this article.
4
It i hard to believe what a joke this guy is. How do the authoritarian gangsters he deals with in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other places keep a straight face?
4
Bravo! Great article. Wimpy Jared is Jack of all trades and master of none.
2
Very well written article! Trump doesn’t want to get his hands dirty a deal with Jews and Arabs or constructing anything in Mexico. He picks Jarod to do the impossible on purpose- that way, he won’t feel like a failure- he’ll let his son-in-law tow that line for him.
3
Trump has brilliantly turned America into what Republicans have always dreamed about - a hateful and authoritarian banana republic. To me it simply is the truth about Republicans - they are all criminal minds with corrupt intent. Stop only pinning this on Trump. Wilson gladly brought on the Depression because he basically did not care. And Americans repay Liberals with the back of their hand. meh. Let America rot is what I say.
They have all sold their souls to the devil.
Faust is smiling
2
When Trump wins re-election, laws hopefully will be changed so this sort of blasphemy against the Trump family and Trump administration will be met with jail time.
Ok, so...Jared walks into a room.
That’s the whole joke.
4
I was so pleased to hear that Jared is in charge of The Great Wall of America. Considering that he has failed at his other most important assignments, I take comfort that the Wall won't go very far at all.
5
How is it that Mexico awarded Jared the Order of the Aztec Eagle in 2018? Thank you for the sash, and now I'll build a wall to keep you out.
Let us also not forget that Prince Jared was assigned to spearhead reforms and solutions to prison reform, Veterans Affairs, and the opioid crisis.
1
Kushner went to the Middle East and saved his family fortunes by gaining help for himself along with acting as an government representative. He left the area on the edge of major conflicts and with Russia looking like the trustworthy actor and the U.S. not so much.
Now he’s going to devote his uncanny genius to building a white elephant. I wonder how this will serve to reward his family, this time, because we all know that that is where his heart and mind is focused.
1
Looking at the picture of these two makes my stomach turn. They try so hard to look like models while they tear the country apart. Can’t wait until they disappear for good!
5
Your barbs are sharp, Mr. Bruni. Unfortunately for we the people, they are right on point.
3
According to an recent interview with an administration official, DT has only repaired or replaced EXISTING wall. New wall construction hasn’t even started yet. What a surprise.
The only “wall” our illegitimate president has built is a wall of lies. He also thinks he can build a wall of absolute immunity from the law and constitution. Good luck with defense Donnie.
2
Mr. Bruni, your words and images are simply delightful and powerfully true. It's hard to say the same things about the same people over and over again in a fresh compelling way but you have done it time and again.
Trump only trusts his family; their loyalty, well rewarded, defies their incompetence. Both have been mired in corruption their whole lives, They blithely go along under their golden umbrella believing in their righteousness. What mental illness allows them to believe themselves to be what Trump demands they be.
3
Thank you Daddy for giving us White House Jobs. Yes Daddy and you lied to the people about being against Family Dynasties. We filled the swamp.
5
Brilliant piece of writing! I laughed out loud several times!
7
Not long ago I lived just a mile or two from the border at a place where only a few trip wires and a wide space cleared of buildings and any growth large enough to hide behind kept folks from crossing. My sister and I loved to explore the vacant. lots and abandoned buildings along the once shared border area and as a result brought. border patrol cars to check us out. I don’t think we would be safe doing that now....
2
So we have people like Jarred "solving" our international problems.We have people like Taylor and Hill with years of experience, knowledge etc. sidelined. We have Trump and his family making decisions that effect millions.
400 miles of walls that cost billions and then we still have 1000 not walled. Coyotes buying metal bladed saws and rope ladders.
His middle east plans did not work so onto the next failure.
3
Best Headline and sub-headline ever!!! Hilarious:-)
1
I am still waiting to see Jared, Ivanka , Don Jr and Eric's wife all investigated for the same issues the Republican/Conservatives are investigating Hunter Biden for.
Here is a chance for those trumpers to show they are unbiased
6
Come on Frank, tell us how you really feel!
2
Nepotism is the lowest and least imaginative
form of corruption.
Daniel Alarcon
2
Well this welcome news is quite a relief. I'm completely opposed to the fascist, xenophobic, environmentally destructive border wall. Having Jared in charge of it assures me that it will never get built.
9
Maybe something will happen in the vast desert landscape that causes Jared to have an epiphany. Maybe he'll realize he's totally out of depth down there, swallow his pride, and induce his good buddy Mohammad Bin Salman to pay him a visit and give wall construction pointers.
Bruni jumps on any bandwagon that comes along.
If you isolated him in a room and told him he couldn't come out until he came up with an original idea, he'd die in there.
He could have just cut and pasted this article from the archive of NY Times, anti-Trump family articles.
As far as the wall is concerned, we can't just leave our southern border open to any Tom, Dick, or Harry that wants to come across. Get busy Jared.
1
So well-written. No one writes like this anymore. A feast for the eyes. And, all true. Stay on it, all you New York Times reporters!
4
I thought Jared was rejected from Harvard on his first application, yes? You know, the one where the Harvard staff considered his capability and past performance?
But, then, after his Dad gave $2 million to Harvard, Harvard reconsidered and..
here we are.
As along as Ivy is going to "grant" entry to these dumb, rich guys, we are going to have to watch them turn the planet into a disaster.
Just look at what "W" wrought after he got a Yale + Harvard education.
Here's hoping for actual competitive admission at Harvard and Yale and Wharton. That would go a LONG way to solving the problem you have so ably outlined today.
Just imagine if Jared's background including flunking out at NY Community College? Instead of being granted an A for .... well....a heartbeat.
5
“Pallid Princeling”. I love it! So apt!
4
Love it, Trump's useless kids and their spouses rule America lol
3
What a joy and delight to read such bite and wit in prose.
Bravo Mr. Bruni, your jousting of Jared pitched him headlong from his sullied steed. Hilarious and non-hirsute, too.
3
as posted earlier a "delicious" piece of writing. Bravo
1
Jared will lead his horse to water, where he won't be able to make it drink. The metaphor that fits Kushner's role in all of this to a T.
2
"It is one of the essential features of ... incompetence that the person so afflicted is incapable of knowing that he is incompetent." -- W.I. Willer
Awesome description of the whole family.
5
Sad to see someone made into a national joke. Even sadder to see that person go along with it.
3
What a clause, "they vanish, cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue." Wow, great writing!
3
According to Steve Rattner this morning, whose facts I trust more than the toadies of Trump, exactly 32 feet of "new" border wall have been built since Trump was elected.
4
Is Ivanka looking ever more like Evita Perón, or am I hallucinating? I tell you one thing: there are not just a few parallels between Argentina in the 60s and 70s and the USA today, the main difference being that evidently we have more ethical people in our armed forces and, on the other hand, the internet to spread the fire of fascism.
2
Great writing for sure, but why skip over (even with sarcasm) Kushner's conspiracy with Trump to coverup MbS' brutal murder of Khashoggi, his biased Middle East policy that reversed decades of U.S. policy, made the U.S. a dishonest broker and has virtually destroyed any chance of peace in the region or his support for Saudi Arabia's slaughter of children and other innocent civilians in Yemen.
Kuchner is not merely a horse that won't run. He is a horse that has torn down the barn.
Oh so true. Every sentence nailed it!
1
It's absolutely hilarious. Jared is in charge of everything that has failed. Everything. Wait til this shows up on his CV - Worked for daddy dearest and did nothing for four years.
2
Thanks, Frank; you are a superb wordsmith. This was the first piece I read this morning – out loud to my husband - as it was just too precious not to savor and share. It has put me in a mellow frame of mind for the rest of the day.
4
There's no "punchline to be inserted" after the assertion that Jared & Company may indeed have contributed to advancing Mideast peace with the plan for the West Bank. A recent survey published in several reliable sources (don't recall if it appeared in the "Times") shows a wide discrepancy between the opinions of ordinary Palestinians and the incompetent kleptocracy run by the aged, frail and mendacious Abbas and the terrorist thugs of Hamas that run Gaza. Ordinary Palestinians, especially the most hopeless in Gaza, are interested in seeing what's possible from the Trump plan. The news analysis surrounding the data suggests that they see the possibility for real short-and-midterm improvement in their lives -- but still maintain maximalist dreams, i.e., the disappearance of Israel by violent means. But it is arguable that a real improvement in the conditions of everyday life, giving people stake in the future, may incrementally chasten the fantasy of destroying Israel by terrorism/war. Mr. Bruno is, in effect, taking his viewpoint from Abbas and Hamas rather than a strong majority of ordinary Palestinians. Is this "liberal" or "progressive?"
2
About two months ago, while in an upscale restaurant, I overheard a middle-aged woman dining with her middle-aged friend say, "Well, I kept thinking and waiting for Ivanka to come in and straighten out the mess. But that hasn't happened."
I paused on my way to the ladies room to actually contemplate that. They looked normal -- no tin foil hats or eyes going in different directions -- but obviously something was deeply amiss with the thinking that produced that expectation.
6
Frank, you're a brilliant writer and you deserve a Pulitzer for your body of work.
5
“Your time and service — our time here — is finite,” Ivanka mused. Let us pray that to be the case and let’s make it as finite as possible.
2
We absolutely must look at the bright side of this. Jared is not getting paid anything to do nothing. Think of the vast number of people in this administration who are getting paid to do nothing.
1
Does anyone know what this pair is actually costing the taxpayer? What are the costs of their housing, travel, child care, (and probably other things I can’t even imagine)? Sometimes “no salary” is not a big hardship if your lifestyle is completely subsidized. And let’s not forget the emoluments.
2
I'd like to think that this nasty couple will soon have to return to their private lives after Trump loses the re-election in 2020. How they get to live the rest of their lives will be an indication of the healthiness of our political and social discourse, or lack of thereof. If - after they have condoned kids being forcefully separated from their parents at the border, kids dying and being abused in cages, racist and anti-Semitic marches in Charlottesville, terrorist attack in the synagogue in Pittsburg, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate accord, etc, etc. - if after all that, the New York high society welcomes them back, then I'd say we are not such a great country after all. They should be shunned by everyone who finds Trump's legacy abhorrent. Let them find their affirmation among the "forgotten" working class Trump promised to help but instead failed miserably.
2
Ken and Barbie ain't got nothin' on THIS smooth plastic duo!! Both so Hollywood they must be brilliant. No wonder Trump is smitten! It's not like anyone's ability has ever gotten in the way of his eye for, uh, talent.
2
Oh Frank, how could you have forgotten to mention Ivanka's best selling Pulitzer Prize winning 3 volume book? I forget the title, but something like "Witless", "Clueless", or was it "ToneDeaf"? (Or "How I stopped worrying and learned to love kids in cages")
2
There's a shortage of construction workers in the US today, and what with getting rid of foreigners reducing their numbers. Two healthy young people could make a real contribution to building that wall. I'm sure they would be regular stakhanovites.
In other words, the slumlord son of an imprisoned real estate scion has been given the job -the massive construction job-of building a wall between the United States and Mexico...
Dear Mr. Bruni,
Thank you for your insight, candor and eloquence.
1
Delusional thinking that Trumps incompetence is the cause of "Nearly three years and the wall being only 25 miles complete" will cause the Dems to lose.
Was the writer under his rock for the first two years?
Stories like this show the only people Democrats are fooling are fellow Democrats.
1
Frank you missed the main point of Jared’s Southern Border Plan.
He wants to put up video cameras streaming construction (well the replacement/repair of existing wall)!
Border Patrol agents were aghast clutching their pearls and swooning onto a fainting couch.
You see these very expensive cameras which would involve moving into different viewing positions multiple times a day would show how the earth moving equipment and other machinery needs to sit on the soil of the Sovereign Country of Mexico to gain a perch to work from the southern side of the wall.
The American ranch owners whose property lies along the Rio Grande are ready to defend their sixth generation property using “shootin’ irons if necessary. (The property that we white Europeans/Americans stole from Spain, Mexico, Native Americans and France.)
Perhaps Walker, Texas Ranger Chuck Norris could help these fine ranchers against a tyrannical administration seeking to use eminent domain to steal their land as Trump has tried hundreds of times in the past for his own real estate holdings!
Now that we given our last Panda back to China, we need to use that Panda cam for another reason.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/white-house-to-use-webcams-to-create-live-feed-of-border-wall-construction/2019/11/12/4014ce26-057a-11ea-a5e2-fccc16fa3576_story.html
1
Jared Kushner is an absolutely perfect symbol for the Trump regime - a vapid, incompetent fraud constructed wholly from inherited wealth. But not benign... replete with hostility toward anyone not a member of the gilded class.
If you want a look at the hollowing out of America’s intellect, competence and ethics, look no further than Ivanka and Jared.
3
A question from afar . . .
Is it infrastructure week yet?
1
“... cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue.” Nailed it, Frank; best line I’ve heard in a long time.
Jared's absence has been plain, I thought he was taking the high road; Far away from his father-in-law's administration.
First Jared’s daddy, Charles, gave him money and an enterprise to play “businessman” with. But Jared’s business career can at best be described to date as lackluster, despite the leg up he was given. Then he marries Donald Trump’s daughter—the equivalent of a nouveau-riche merger of New York real estate families. Now Trump keeps giving him job after job with the same non-results. It is truly better to be lucky than good.
1
Someone once said of Ivanka and Jared Kushner that they don't realize how irrelevant they are in the real world of Washington. This column captures their cluelessness well.
Thanks.
2
The wall's a failure. Enough of it.
Add Kushner to the subpoena list. It'll force him to focus on something truly important: testimony of what he knows about his corrupt father-in-law and the Ukraine scandal.
2
I find it interesting as well as apropos of human nature that news events have life cycles of mosquitos in this administration. Annd of course Donald Sr. wants to keep it that way.
We had immigrant children being pulled away by ICE , some dying then nothing. How many are still here w/o their parents ?
Are they still being held in squalid conditions or were they returned to parents/guardians ? Has anyone notice the new press woman after Sarah H. is just mailing it in. Letting the big cheese do his ad lib and therefore not telling any lies on his behalf.
AG Barr has come out of his closet, said the Epstein murder was just perfect and then vanished into the ethernet. Meanwhile there's been no follow up by the press as to where the warden and guards that were on duty , have been moved to or if their kids education fund has increased substatinally. Are we that naive to being told that that like Nixon's secretary 18 minutes of erased audio tape has been forever lost to a malfunctioning camera.
Where is Ms. G. Maxwell and how come no one has indicted her ? I'm thinking that if Queen E decides to throw her son Andy under the bus that's our only way we'll get vital info. Vaesity Blue seems to be at a standsill waiting for Olivia Jade's parents to plead guilty. Why should they ? With others getting light sentences they're rolling the dice and hoping to get off on a technicality. They can always appeal to the Supremes where there is now a justice who loves his brewskis.
1
And Trump and the Republicans are worried about corruption with Hunter Biden and Ukraine?
2
Mr Bruni,
I love your writing, the turns of phrase, the intelligence and wit.
But I must admonish you as there are many who will not read further than your words "Having solved the Middle East" and believe it!
Mr. Bruni's assessment is absolutely correct. This administration is only about incompetence and graft.
Consider this additional article as to why no one should expect solutions from such unqualified people:
vox.com/2019/9/5/20851230/jason-greenblatt-israel-palestine-middle-east-trump
Well, we'll see who's laughing in January 2025 when President Donald Trump, Jr. appoints Kushner as Secretary of State.
If Hunter Biden was unqualified to serve as 1/7 board members of a foreign gas company after being a bank exec, working for the Commerce Dept, serving as vice chairman of the Amtrak Board. doing consulting and legal work for Burisma before being offered the seat, what qualifies Kushner to be senior adviser to POTUS charged with everything from Middle East peace to boarder wall? On paper at least, HB is more qualified to be POTUS than Trump who has never even filled out a job application. Trump couldn't pass the security clearance to be groundskeeper at the White House.
3
I loved the sentence having solved the Middle East crisis . That was a lie . The last i heard the USA has let the situation with the settlements favor Israel and that is all our war. Now the son in law is going to build the wall. Kushner needs to be locked up for falsely reporting on his business forms to the government he was renting apartments to the low income and lying about it. That was why he could not get a top secret security clearance for a few years until the bad guy Trump stepped in.
We have become the Kim family's North Korea or Ceaușescu's
Romania. The complete transformation of our society will be complete as soon as we agree to our children singing songs in the elementary and middle schools praising the Trump family. And that will happen too in January 2021 if we don't get rid of this thoroughly corrupt family.
2
Amend the constitution now to ban clueless and corrupt relatives being part of a Presidents advisor staff.
2
The wall is a bigger challenge than Trump could appreciate. Worse for him, smugglers have already peeled it open like a can of sardines, so it does not serve the purpose for which it is intended, except to tell people form the south that they are unwelcome. Kushner of course has not the ability to see the problem with clarity and in context, so he will try to ramrod it through to completion, producing a faux barrier wall at the end of the project. One more fake accomplishment for the great Donald Trump.
1
I don't understand media's obsession with Mr. Kushner. Yes, he is the president's son-in-law and has no qualifications for the tasks he is given. Yes, he is in the WH because of Mr. Trump's brazen nepotism. Yes, he has ran his own family business into the ground, but wants to resolve one of the most complex issues the world has ever faced. Yes, he has close family ties with some West Bank settlers, but is supposed to be an impartial mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But then what is new? Is Jerry Kushner the only one in Mr. Trump's White House whose tasks diverge so much from his/her abilities or qualifications? Given Mr. Kushner's mixed "distinctions" and past achievements, do we know if he has actively sought a position in the WH, or was that imposed on him by a father-in-law who wants to be a king surrounded only by those who are loyal to him?
Let's face the facts. Mr. Trump and the majority of those in his inner circle are patently incompetent. In particular, those not in his family got their jobs either by writing large (million dollars?) checks in support of Mr. Trump's election or by demonstrating that their loyalty to him trumps their country's. So, it is fair to ask the media why the other blundering, inept, fools are largely left alone and everyone is so much focused on poor Jerry's every move? Is this because they expecting his failures to be colossal and, consequently, "funny" or there is something else going on?
The bar is so low for this administration that if they accomplish anything positive it’ll viewed as a victory. The swing voters in swing states seem to be still undecided and as dangerous as a second term will be I think it’s a real possibility if Republicans don’t vote to impeach.
2
The Peter Principle is being tested every day in the Trump debacle. This is another opportunity for Jared to violate it.
1
I’m really looking forward to the Texas news coverage of Jared trying to seize private land through eminent domain in order to build Trump’s wall. Should be a doozy to watch Texas ranch people vs. Jared/Trump.
Also looking forward to the courts bringing the whole process to a standstill.
4
Jared for President 2024 - Make America Even Greater.
This has gone beyond farce, how can any GOP elected official or registered voter stand behind this mess ?
2
Dear Frank,
Your columns are so informative, packed with delicious metaphors, I am hoping you create a think tank strong enough to combat the worst strains coming from ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, and the Federalist Society, to name a few.
Recently I celebrated my 75th birthday, or as Neal deGrass Tyson calls it, "my 75th lap around the sun." And in all my years, raised in a family with liberal traditions dating back to the early 1800s (my great-great-grandmother was active in the Abolitionist Movement before the Civil War), I have never seen such political madness coming from one party — the Republicans. Their rise to power involves those aforementioned "think tanks" working as lobbyists to shape and write nearly all of the conservative legislation rammed through the Republican-controlled House and Senate, and all with the final signature of Republican presidents.
Then, along comes Trump and his family of grifters and nitwits. How could it get any worse? Every time I ask myself, or others, that question, they manage to sink deeper into the realm of a criminal syndicate, and they are taking the entire Republican Party with them.
Indeed, Frank, watching Jared trying, and failing, to be a diplomat, I also have the sinking feeling he is also investigating business oppotunities with ruthless dictators eager to launder vast sums of ill-gotten gain.
Jared is just a scout for new business on behalf of the Trump family. DJT is the just "closer" embracing despots everywhere.
6
Oh, Frank, this piece is, for lack of a better word, absolutely magnificent. I have read it at least three times - in a row. I think I want a "Jared for President 2020" decal for my car. I do, I do. Thank you so much for writing this. Truly thank you and have a good day on Thursday.
3
This OpEd confirms my believe that Jared Kushner is the real president of the United States right now. Trump is a figurehead and this un-elected slum landlord sets and executes White House policy. Frightening. My only disagreement is your lead that says he solved Middle East policy. Though you meant it tongue-in-cheek, for those who only skim headlines they might t hink that Kushner really did bring peace. He has destabilized the world. America has experienced a coup.
1
One of your best columns Mr. Bruni. One of your best.
Thanks. You made my day.
2
"But when its corruption is being exposed and the drizzle of subpoenas becomes a downpour, they vanish, cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue."
Oh! To have just a fraction of Frank Bruni's way with words.
6
Add "Washington" to "Hollywood" in the definition: Hollywood is high school with money. Because in high school, the bully has his misfit posse and usually no one stands up to him but for some lofty types who give speeches.
People are writing that Jared has failed at everything. That's not true. Jared has been a spectacular success at being a mean and corrupt landlord to many grimly unfortunate tenants.
996
@West Coast ...and he will be investigated next!
30
@West Coast
And he got that huge loan to save his investment in 666 Fifth Avenue for which he vastly overpaid. But since 666 is considered the Devil's own number, maybe it is totally appropriate for the Kushner's to own it!
57
@West Coast Agreed. He is the success you stated however one cannot presume to act with integrity on behalf of the country while entrenched in nefarious schemes of their own. Without his connections he has no spine.
28
Actually I think this is your most brilliant piece ever. Congratulations, and wow.
5
Spot on FB, wrt Jared! To wit, “... cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella ..., so smooth-cheeked and mute...comes out only if his suit won’t get dirty or his hair wet...”
The perfect solution of course, is to add some Rudy to the skill set. That would make a dream team. The new 3 amigos, and this time they mean business!
6
The Fresh Prince of Kalorama charges on, despite no accomplishments worthy of mention.
4
Wonderful Mr. Bruni. If I had written what you wrote in a comment the NYT wouldn't have published it. But you can, you did, and the NYT ran it. Few people really deserve being cut down to size, especially with a scalpal as funny as yours, but this administration has people waiting in line. I was laughing before I got beyond the cutline "Having solved the Middle East..." Indeed.
Beautiful. Thanks.
5
Jared has an impressive list of friends;
The Israeli Netanyahu under criminal investigation.
The Saudi MBS suspected of murder.
and, of course Trump, about to be impeached.
Good thing he has Ivanka.
7
One can only imagine the private discussions among world leaders about Jared. Trump truly believes he is a crime boss and can only trust family - and it’s obvious to all, much to our nation’s detriment and embarrassment.
Then again, his daughter married into another felony family. Such class 😦
6
But wait. I thought Jared was going to be the Secretary of the Space Force.
6
"The pallid princeling." That, alone, tells us why you're at the New York Times. Brilliant.
But about the article - the Kushners are an interesting study in royalty. They prance around, and Ivanka Instagrams herself, as if they were the rightful heirs to a palace. But instead of following their every move, fashion choice, first day of school and horticultural fair opening, we shudder with resentment when they intrude, in their intrude-y way, onto our reading material.
More House of Marcos than Windsor, more Uday/Khusay than Jack and Bobby, this grasping couple proves that Americans have more common sense and better instincts than anyone in the White House.
Even royalty is earned. There is still a latent Will of the People slumbering beneath our underactive constituency.
7
It's like one of those family businesses where the founder's offspring are too incompetent or corrupted to keep is running.
Oh wait, that's what this administration is.
4
I think Kushner will recruit his sister to go to China in a roadshow in order to get the funds for the wall in exchange for visas and visits to Mar-a-Lago.
Second, he will hire Odebrecht to build it because he likes their MO.
Then he will recruit the Saudis to outsource the checkpoints along the wall. I am not sure if because of their MO too.
He will feel very accomplished and maybe even make some money. If he runs into problems he will hire his father in law's lawyer.
2
Great, brilliant!
3
Thanks, I needed that.
4
My thanks this year go to you Frank Bruni for delighting in the written word during such horrid times.
4
If Jared is going to be in charge of seeing the wall built, someone needs to send him an instruction book for how to use clam shell post hole diggers. I am sure that his precious, soft, hands have never done any manual labor, but to get the wall built, that is what it will take. He is a jack of all trades and a master at none.
2
A true Renaissance man!
1
I believe the President just wants someone on the wall who will break the law without any fanfare. For that, Jared's your guy!
2
Nepotism 2.0 = Javanka. Unfortunately these two may find the Trump brand defiled and devalued after Daddy gets impeached and leaves office.
2
The old sop goes like this.
You know the sun is setting on a country when small men cast long shadows.
Jared, donald, lil' donny and the rest wander around trying to be relevant, yet are unable to convince anyone that they nothing more than displaced NYC developers with legal problems.
Who would make a deal with these creeps? Obviously the republicans have, without reading the fine print.
3
But Jared is such a religious fellow. And received a special dispensation from clergy to allow the couple to violate the Sabbath to travel on important government business. You have to be a big machor to rate that special exemption. And he is.
3
Here I thought that Hunter Biden was guilty of getting a cushy job because of his parentage. So Donnie Jr and Jared both owe their undying allegiance - and well-paying jobs - to the Far Right's Dear Leader. Do I have my facts correct, or are they irrelevant when it comes to finding someone for the Far Right loonie bin types to hate?
7
So then Jared will get Mexico to pay for The Wall?
4
I confess, I had a pretty snappy, snarky comment all deftly crafted to post here…because Mr. Bruni, whom I adore, I love your snark!
But then, I thought the better of it.
If I can’t muster up some “shared humanity” for Jared Kushner for Thanksgiving…I am pretty sure that puts me in a league with a whole lotta folks in Washington who have all but left behind their humanity.
So, here goes…
I am choosing to muster up some genuine empathy and compassion for Jared Kushner this Thanksgiving 2019 and here’s why…
Only one of two things is occurring right now at the White House between Jared and his father-in-law…
One, a whole lot of delusion and machinations, and manipulation about, “The great job my son-in-law Jared is doing with peace in the Middle East, and lots of other really important stuff, including our wall in Mexico, and all around the world. He's all around the world for me you know.”
Or two, Jared is at the receiving end of a whole lotta emotional manipulation and punishment from the President.
Those are the only two ways we’ve ever seen President Trump operate…even with family.
So, though I do not agree with anything Jared Kushner believes, stands for, or has proposed…God Bless you Jared.
I do not wish you good luck with that wall, but nonetheless…yevarekhekha hashem.
1
@Kelly Grace Smith - Kushner is a grown man and he should be able to make his own choices.
He surely knows right from wrong and has consistently chosen wrong.
He deserves no compassion and right thinking people need to stand up and condemn the evil he's perpetrating.
When I heard this, I thought, "great, with all of his success in solving the Israeli/Palestinian problem, I'll get a chance to use some of my rusty Spanish with all the new Mexican and Central American neighbors we will soon have."
And then their kids will be assimilated and join in the great American melting pot like I did with my friends here in California, and they can read in their high school American History class (in English) about how Trump's single-term was a little backward's jog in the great story of American immigration and prosperity. So many paranoid ignoramuses have tried to stop immigration, and so many have failed, and our country is the better for it. We are Americanizing the whole world through globalization, so no worries about immigrants coming here; they will be good Americans for sure...!
1
Well said.
With all this eye popping garbage that permeates illiterate trump, his family and appointees, I am baffled by number of trump groupies that still support him. Who are these people that think he is the second coming. Maybe the're the least educated that trump loves so much.
3
Cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue. Thanks, I needed that this morning.
3
c'mon, Frank. you know that Jared is a Harvard educated businessman, right? Did you think that just because his daddy happened to donate $2.5 million to Harvard the year of his acceptance, he didn't earn his spot?
The fact that the typical conservative responses in the comments section here are mute shows us you're on to something. Dems need to showcase Jared, and his litany of failures, as a symbol of the administration's corruption and ineptitude.
4
Let's see. The president's personal lawyer is headed for the slammer with two Russian-Ukrainian goons from the Odessa Mob. The vice president, head of OMB and acting chief of staff, the Secretary of State and soon-to-resign Energy Secretary may follow them there. The president's tame basset at DOJ has lost every judicial ruling that disputes his spurious claims of vast executive powers and blanket immunity from subpoenas. The Pentagon is bitterly critical of a commander-in-chief who has disrupted order and discipline in the armed forces by disrupting the chain of command and pardoning war criminals. And the president's son-in-law continues to amass a vast portfolio of responsibilities far beyond his abilities to deliver on any of them. The only task he has not yet been given is finding Hillary's server in Ukraine.
3
Perhaps Jared will offer Mexico a "Deal of the century" to pay for the wall. After all, the success of the last failed deal of the century in the Middle East peace still has a stench to it.
2
All I really know about Jared is that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who oversaw the murder and dismemberment of our journalist Kashoggi, boasted publicly that he had Jared "in his pocket."
Go for that wall, Jared. Then Trump can blame you for never getting it built. Because it won't be.
1
You just could not make the Trump stuff up.
The sad thing is the people who support his lie and
Think he is the chosen one.
Well he is chosen by Putin to destroy America.
2
Mediocrity is too flattering a word for Kushner. Oh yeah, he probably doesn’t know what that means.
2
Well said sir, well said.
2
I can't help but think of the first daughter and son-in-law as the GOOP arm of the GOP.
3
You have to laugh. Trump supporters accuse Biden's son of benefiting from nepotism, and build wild conspiracy theories around that. And all the while, there's Jared, conspicuous nepotism at its worst. Useless Jared, with his immaculate suits and buffed nails.
Failing up, indeed.
4
The Kushners are of unique value to Donald Duck- they can’t quit him and he can’t fire them.
1
I wish him as much success with the border wall as he achieved with his Israeli - Palestinian peace endevour.
1
Sorry Mr Bruni I just couldn't read your piece about Jared. Reading about his father-in-law has my blood pressure spiking daily, and I just couldn't risk it.
3
I'm always taken aback by the level of cognitive dissonance the Kushner family must ascribe to in order to get through the day. Who would have imagined that 75 years after his grandparents survived the Holocaust, that Jared would collaborate in the building of a xenophobic wall while remaining silent on the caging of migrant children. Who would have imagined his apparent comfort in being a slumlord in Baltimore. Who would have imagined how both he, and his brother Joshua, would go on to make deals with a despot from Saudi Arabia. They have forsaken their own family name.
7
To "Kushner" something should become a verb: to pass along a silly, pointless task to an incompetent family member.
4
Deliciously nasty...and really, are there 2 more annoyingly smug, entitled people on the face of the earth? And who can ever forgive Ivanka for her "my dad" speech at the convention, giving partial human qualities to the buffoon the great unwashed had foisted on the GOP?
3
“There’s an upside, though. With Jared in the saddle, this horse won’t go far.”
What I’m really hoping and praying is that not in the too distant future the entire family will be imploring “ a horse, a horse, a kingdom for a horse!”
3
Fun to read. We must see more political humor and satire from Frank Bruni. It's much better than his serious political stuff and there's too much of that already in the Times.
1
I share your derision of the Trumps and their ilk, Mr. Bruni. You write a good article and you made me laugh, sir.
1
At least this guy looks the part. Dresses well. And has the right accompaniment.
Other than that, like his father-in-law, he's a loser who just hasn't realized it.
2
It is quite shocking that Trump's wall is only 25 miles. Why hasn't he just bought other people's walls, and then lied about how big they are, who built them and where they are located, per his usual MO?
1
Poor Jared.
Born on third base and thinks he hit a home run.
Comically incompetent.
3
They can't fix or make anything, let alone make anything great. They only know how to break stuff. How to lie, cheat and steal. How to be slumlords. How to do reality TV. Jared and Ivanka are as pretty as they are venal, mendacious, feckless.
2
We are lucky that spankys people are so incompetent. The few that show periodic competence are damaging the country.
1
no amount of cynicism, no portion of snark, no degree of rhetorical flourish can convey the disgust and sense of utter degradation that this so-called administration inspires. the dregs of the human race. irredeemable.
3
Whatever happened to Louis XVI’s children? We know what happened to Louis and Marie but what about the kids? Rhetorical questions.
Israel has #Humpty Dumpty Netanyahu who is going to jail but not before his ally Trump has poured gasoline all over Israel with his magnanimous gifts of Jerusalem, Golan, and the West Bank, no doubt all Jared’s plan. Just imagine how ISIS is using this news. Imagine how the governments of Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia will deal with Palestinians and their own populations.
Should Mexico prepare for a revolution, war, or economic collapse? Here comes Jared. Is he smart, knowledgeable, experienced? His dad donated a library to get him into a great college and thinks Jared’s a good boy. Jared believes in himself and so does Ivanka and Donald. Reassured?
1
@Joseph Huben - Read Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser. It's an excellent book.
The concept of "Trump's Wall" embodies the racist hatred, fear, and selfish greed that this family represents. They have no interest whatsoever for maintaining the ecology of Mother Earth, as shown by their destruction of the EPA, and denial of climate change. They could care less about the wild migratory animals - jaguars, pumas, foxes, various rodents - plus centuries-old saguaro cacti, rare medicinal plants, and the rest of the complex flora & fauna of the desert ecosystem, and whose lives will be permanently altered by this Wall. And this enormous, destructive totally wasteful, disgustingly ugly, Wall, is only intended to keep our beloved brown-skinned neighbors from coming here, to seek a better life, just as all of our caucasian ancestors did.
If this monstrosity ever gets built, it will be a monument to the Trump Family's Shameful Racist Egotistical Hatred for Our Dear and Honorable Neighbors.
3
And yet Trump & his sycophants argue that it was illegal for Hunter Biden, a Yale Law School graduate & founder of a DC lobbying firm, to sit on the board of Burisma.
4
The management of Jared's reputation is perhaps the White House's single most important task. He is being groomed as the next POTUS so he can pardon his father in law for his myriad criminal acts while in office.
1
The 1% Wall.
2
I heard Jared just got Hunter Biden's seat on the board of Burisma.
Wait! The palace eunuch appears! Clutching a sheaf of papers and a trowel, without so much as a bead of sweat appearing on a smooth unfurrowed brow. “I propose a stout wall, my father-outlaw’s bidding. It will be stronger, taller, longer, and more impenetrable than my thought process.”
2
In this enrich-yourself-despite-incompetence menu at the red neck steak-house he is the meal with the nice guy flavor. He is for all the americans, that want the bloating and getting there by using cutlery.
The Stepford power couple. I'm still not convinced those two aren't a product of Disney's animatronics lab.
3
Loved this Mr. Bruni - dripping with such delicious sarcasm and so exact!
5
The only thing I will miss when Trump and the Trumps are gone is Frank Bruni's columns about this Hogarthian bunch. The pen is mightier than the clothes!
6
Good Article!
2
I hope that this Reality Show ends soon. I can't take more of these two phonies and liars! 2020 can't come soon enough if the Republican senators continue to support the clown cart!
7
"It’s sand through an hourglass," says Ivanka, quoting with no trace of awareness or irony the introduction of an ancient long-running TV soap opera _Days of Our Lies._
5
Had Jared not been born into a real estate business, he’d be working as a shift supervisor at a fast food franchise.
6
The entire Trump administration embodies the Peter Principle. Furthermore, he's doing his utmost to apply the principle to Congress and the Judiciary--and succeeding.
4
I was actually relieved to learn if Mr. Kushner's new assignment. Now we can relax. It almost ensures failure.
7
It will be interesting to see how Jared can build the wall without funds. Maybe his father -in -law the "chosen one" can make the wall from water. Time will tell.
5
@VMG
Trump can hold another fake charity in the name of all veterans and get millions then pay for the wall and forget the veterans again . Good thing for judges they forced him to pay back the 2 million he stole from last years veterans charity.
1
What exactly is Jared's official job in this administration? I don't recall other presidents inviting various family members to sit around the West Wing and do ... whatever it is Jared does. I believe we have an entire administrative staff to carry out the wishes of the president. Just like we have an entire State Department to solve problems like the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Apparently Trump is such a bad administrator he can't use these official resources and has to resort to nepotism instead.
3
Nepotism is fine--as long as you keep it in the family.
5
Yes, another fine example of life imitating art; in this case the Trump administration imitating Veep. If it weren't creating such a mess for a future, competent administration to sort out it would be pretty funny.
At any rate, fine piece Frank; keep them coming!
4
I couldn’t agree more! One of Bruni’s best!
1
Trump understands that when it's the long con, you have to fake progress now and then so that the marks don't get too suspicious. This kills two birds with one stone, since he can also buff up the genius Jared image he tries to build, which is only a viable image for the Trumpsters reveling in Trump's bubble universe.
In fact, Jared may be in training to take over Trump's role as Corrupter-In-Chief; soon, everything he touches will die, too. Certainly Jared has degraded the situations of the federal government "reinvention" and the Middle East since taking on those tasks. One might even argue that his influence is partially responsible for Netanyahu's slow fall from grace (such as it was).
Jared's task with the Wall will be to attempt to fake progress better, meanwhile ensuring maximum financial benefit to Trump and/or cronies involved in construction of whatever does happen on the border and places where detainees are stacked and racked. They're already squeezing out a lot of dough-re-mi from the facilities disposition of detainees at the border, and children torn from their families and shoved into the system (such as it is) for abandoned or orphaned children. But hey, those businesses are booming, right? Score another win for the Wonderful Job-Creator.
You have to follow the money, with whatever Trump and his cadre does. There will never be more than a couple degrees of separation between "policy" and lined pockets.
5
I think we should give them each a permanent title. And a sceptre. Ivanka can be "The Princess Of Cliches'" and Jared can be "The Prince of Ephemeral Achievement." We can build them an imaginary castle somewhere near the Reflecting Pool so they may always enjoy their own image reflected back at them.
10
There once was a review for a really bad movie. The review simply said: Perhaps if we ignore it, it will go away. If only that would work for this crop of clowns.
7
I wonder if they discuss life after Donald. I expect a book explaining how they fought Trump on so many issues, pleading and Ivanka shedding tears.
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Kushner is not a very sharp guy and as in the Middle East he’ll rely upon his business and social acquaintances to decide what needs to be done, and it will not be good for the United States as a result. Who knows, maybe Russia will end up with the kind of presence that it mow has in the Middle East.
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Tonight at a rally our President said - with a straight face no less - “They’re attacking me because I’m exposing a rigged system that enriched itself at your expense and I’m restoring government of, by and for the people,” he told the crowd at the BB&T Center.
It's not sad that Trump has built his life, and his presidency, actually exploiting, not exposing, the "rigged system." It's sad that Trump, and his Republican/Fox News enablers, have been able to dupe so many astoundingly gullible voters. George Orwell could not imagine the reality of "doublespeak" in this day and age. Trump and Fox News have far exceeded anything Orwell could have dreamed up.
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Your writing is delicious. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Oooh the scorn. And the burn!
The last line is truly that. The last line. And the punch line.
Now, if only the whole WH gaggle would get on their horses.
And ride sweetly off into the sunset. The end.
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Some think funny...I think mean. Hunter Biden is a prince but the Trump kids are all rotten. Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Frank.
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@Gail For "mean" see how slumlord Jared treats his tenants....and yes, the trump kids ARE all rotten. Happy Thanksgiving!
This bunch of vultures and vulturettes are only about lining their nest with our feathers. It so offensive to me that his family members/donors who are under-educated, and just hatched out of the egg are put in critical governmental positions which require education, experience and a functional cortex. I say functional cortex because most of us would not even consider a position we have no educational background or experience in and the absurdity of it. Their nest is not made of branches of integrity and honor.
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I'm eagerly awaiting the outcome of Jared trying to boss around construction workers.
3:)
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When Trump wins re-election, laws hopefully will be changed so this sort of blasphemy against the Trump family and Trump administration will be met with jail time. Making America Great Again in the face of the swamp has now become an emergency, Suspending the Congress and future election may be necessary in order to allow Trump and his family to lead.
@NYCfanofStrongLeadership - Please tell me this is sarcasm.
It’s scary that Jared Kushner is one of the most powerful people in the world. He seems to be a super shady operator who is working without any accountability.
The only reason Kushner is Trump’s top advisor is because of his father in law. It should concern everybody that Kushner couldn’t get a security clearance.
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Mr. Bruni, Thank you for "pallid princeling".
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Today's funniest comments.
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The "pallid princeling"!! What an absolutely PERFECT moniker for Jared.
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Jared Kushner was a Democrat until 2009, the year he married Ivanka Trump.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Kushner#Political_background
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Poor Hunter Biden. He had to go all the way to Ukraine to land a job. Had his name been Trump he would have found a cushy position with dad all paid for by US taxpayers' dollars AFTER being given a security clearance waiver.
Jared knows as much about building border walls as Hunter did about the energy business. Funny how Republicans care so little about that.
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I'm a little confused here. Mr. President, aside from occasionally strutting down the catwalk, and peddling her wares in China, what exactly ARE those 14 million jobs that Ivanka created, and HOW did she do it?
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"Having solved the Middle East, the president’s son-in-law tackles the border wall."
Although the whole article is bitter humor about Jared I do believe the word "solved" should have been printed with quotation marks.
One can bet that his Master's son-in-law's "policy" is responsible for about 50 more years of conflict between Israel and the rest of the Middle East. Altogether that will be more than 120 years of hatred and violence with unforeseeable dire consequences to all nations in the world as new issues are not being answered when not shoved under the rug.
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Can one continually fall on one's face and still move up? If you have the cash apparently so.
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"deliciously perfect assignment. The pallid princeling"
Write what opinions you like, I expect that I won't always agree with it but that is why I read newspapers. But to describe someone as "pallid" in your introduction of your opinion piece is deliberately mean spirited and wrong.
Did that check from Mexico clear the bank yet??
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Another nepotism fiasco
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You make my day.
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Jared will get the border wall in Colorado built in no time!
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Love it!
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My heavens, Mr Bruni, how I do love you!
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To think the Republicans have their boxers in such a twist over Hunter Biden when Trump children run the White House, resolve the Middle East, connive in China and endlessly cost taxpayers a fortune flying them from har to thar doing nothing. Ye gads.
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Our long suffering queen had to go through the charade of hosting this bunch of freeloaders at Buckingham Palace. The whole family!
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Michael: I know! I couldn’t believe it! I wanted to throw up. EVERYONE in the Trump administration was there, even that creep Kellyanne Conway, plus Trump’s kids who aren’t in the administration, all of them mincing before the Queen with their self-satisfied smirks. How did the Royal Family countenance this?? How does Trump continually get away with his opportunistic grifting?? The RF should not have given him a state dinner at all, IMHO, but if they had to, it should have been Trump and Melania and the veep and his wife, maybe SOS. Not this retinue of what, 30 or more people connected to the president??
Where is Chris Christie in all this? He bought down Jared's old man. Time for him to get in there and take down the son. And with Jared's fingers in the wall effort, one has to assume there will be graft and corruption. Wallgate. Christie can be a patriot and make up for Bridgegate.
4
Do tax payer money pay for this pointless couple?
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Love it!
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I wonder what Kutchner is being paid for his efforts......U.S. taxpayers are funding him. At least Hunter Biden (and he was probably more capable than Kutchner) was being paid by Burisma.
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hilarious, if not for tragedies enabled by his fecklessness
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Frank, Jared's horse ain't going anywhere, except perhaps jail. It's not even worth the meat wagon.
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The hilarious part is that Jared will find the only people with the skills and will to work on this construction project are the Mexicans.
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Worth reading for ‘pallid princeling’ alone!
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Exactly. Great figurative language!
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Kushner is the shiftless son-in-law whom you have to hire in order to keep your daughter happy. Evidently the dude peaked when he was shutting off the heat of his tenants.
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When Jared and Ivanka are out of sight, you can bet they are working on their own real estate and faux fashion deals--all for personal gain. Follow the money, please, and you'll hit a jackpot of behind-the-scenes self-promotion and dealing. but the kids think they will be all right, as long as Americans are so laser-focused on daddy's daily distractions.
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Jared isn't qualified to oversee the drip system in my yard.
That being said, the mythical wall won't be standing for too long once those billions have been diverted back to the project.
Many military bases around the country are suffering due to money being diverted to building the mythical wall.
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Wow! Mr. Bruni, you have outdone yourself with the treasure trove of EXCELLENT jabs at Jared and Ivanka in this opinion. "Pallid princeling" is my favorite! It reminds me of Ravishing Ronald from the Bugs Bunny episode.
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Maybe Trump is hoping that Jared will get kidnapped by the cartels so he can have Ivanka all to himself. The fact is that Jared is a liability for his father-in-law among no small number of his basest base....the anti-semitic wing. Take a stroll on Breitbart someday when Jared is in the news. It ain't pretty. There's a lot of resentment over the fact that Trump let his princess marry a you-know-what. The incels for Trump don't like it either. It's just not fair that such a dweeb gets the prize of the century. But at least the wall won't get built after all.
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President Trump thinks he can run a complex government structure with his twitter, a few relatives, and a collection of average rejects whose only qualification is the ability to say "yes, every idea you have is brilliant and your handsome as well."
Government officials with knowledge are resigning in droves. Their replacements can't hold up to Senate scrutiny so he simply call them "acting". OMB and Chief of Staff are both full time jobs yet Trump has one person running both, and so they are run badly. Trump can't tell the difference between a small family business, Trump Inc., and running a government. His business can be run with just a small handful of people. A government can't be run like that.
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Jared Kushner has only one real job - to make money for Trump.
All of this "Middle East Peace" and "Border Wall" nonsense is just public relation lies, to thinly disguise the fact that he's lining Trump's pockets, and his own.
Remember that overwhelming debt on "666 Fifth Avenue"?
Gee, look at how that conveniently disappeared.
Kushner is just another useful prop, in Trump's criminal enterprise.
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Has Jared figured out yet on which of the wall the moat will go? Don Jr. says it should go on the American side so we can be assured the snakes and alligators will remain loyal.
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It’s easy to forget — given the time that’s passed and the daily coverage this family receives standing around in front of the symbols of American democracy— just how grotesquely unqualified they are for the positions they occupy. Putin must be laughing at how cheap his splendid online purchase was.
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Can this mean he will get a loan from China to rescue the wall like he did for his Manhattan property.
Jared is just as good as he sounds, as when he speaks.
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Thank you for another interesting piece, love your writing!
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The idle rich. If they are not honing their grifter skills, they merely bask in the glow of their imaginations.
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Nepotism isn't always a good idea.
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Frank Bruni - you must be sitting around our dinner table. We too have been talking about Jared's brilliant career in much the same tone you use, (well, maybe in a little more salty fashion). We naturally appraise Ivanka in much the same way. Fine folks both!
I
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I think this is part of yet another nefarious plan:
Jared at the border.
Troops at the border.
There is a report that the donald is going to declare drug cartels in Mexico as terrorist organizations.
What do you think he will do now that "official" terrorists are at the door? Who will stop him? Jared?
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But it just keeps going on, doesn't it? In secrecy, damaging the public good, like everything else they do. Good Luck America, you'll need a miracle just to stop lying to yourselves.
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Jared and Ivanka are not being given this job for the abilities or experience.
They are being given this job so that they can profit from the contracts acquired using the BILLIONS Trump took away from the US military.
At the end of the day, BILLIONS of those US military redirected funds will simply disappear and there will be no wall to show for.
In order to buy more Republican loyalty to defend him against impeachment, Trump will spend those BILLIONS on Republican favorite contractors.
And you wonder why Nunes behaves the way he does,,,,,
Let that sink in!!!!
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We can only hope that this "wunderkind" will wall himself (and his entire extended criminal enterprise of a family) in.
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What some fine superlative piece of writing! More of this please NYT. Creative with words and edgy, piercing and to the point, with style.
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@osikai
Well, you know, Frank's been doing this kind of writing for years at The New York Times.
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@osikai
I especially liked..."Donald Jr., so loud and hirsute, and Jared, so smooth-cheeked and mute." Music to my ears.
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@osikai I like this bit, speaking of Jared and Ivanka "They’re front and center when the administration is announcing some ostensibly sensible initiative or claiming a pittance of progress. But when its corruption is being exposed and the drizzle of subpoenas becomes a downpour, they vanish, cuddling for warmth under the gilded umbrella of their hallucinatory virtue."
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It's amazing how fast success arrives when you hold a structural engineering degree from Trump University.
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The Wall is fiction that will never be built. Perfect for the vapid, spoiled Kushner who doesn't realize he's being setup by Trump. Since no significant Wall progress will happen in the next nine months (besides the lies that Trump will tell his supporters), Trump can blame Kushner for the failure. Ultimately though, that won't happen because hallucinatory golden girl Ivanka will make sure daddy doesn't say anything bad about Jared in public.
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Oh, my, what comes to mind, is the ‘best laid plans of mice and men’. Why do they believe their ruse will succeed? Yes, it’s because it has. How much longer can this craziness continue? The costs of this ‘alternative reality’ is staggering. The costs of greed, lies and deception always is. When the base comes to realize they’ve been played, how will they respond? Truth has a way of unraveling falsehoods, or as the Bible says, ‘surely your sins will find you out’. You may be able to fool ‘some if the people all the time, or all the people some of the time’, but God is not mocked, ‘you will reap what you sow’. Justice must be served. The day of reckoning will come.
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@GraceNeeded
I wish it was true. But when you have a cult of Trumpers
I’m not sure if anything will change until they drag him out of the White House!
Did this elevation of duties come with an Erector Set? A little practical practice couldn't hurt as Jared takes command of the army of construction workers scurrying like ants to build an ocean-to-ocean barrier reaching to the ionosphere. Is he gonna wear those shiny shoes with the wafer-thin soles as he strides the desert sands? It's only a matter of time before the drug cartels deploy an armada of those tunnel-boring machines that can cut holes through the earth big enough for a subway train. They'll have exit escalators popping out of the ground in Albuquerque before Jared finishes reading the instructions on box lid.
“Your time and service — our time here — is finite,” says his wife. So it is. And in this instance, the finiter the better.
And the RNC put up a hundred large for DJT Jr.'s contribution to American literature! That's what, a million copies? At that, they paid 10 times more than it's worth. And it reaches that level only for it's heat value as it burns in the fireplace as you drink your holiday toddies.
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When the Trump debacle is at an end, which hopefully will be sooner than later Jared, with Ivanka as a sub plot would be a perfect subject for a book. The Prince and the Paupers, the paupers being the millions of people in low paying jobs his wife, I forgot her name did not create. So where are all the high paying jobs Trump and his family firm are supposed to get? The Palestinian problem along with the rest of the Middle East has been handed to Putin (Trumps control) and Erdogen his business partner.
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I misread a sentence of this piece as follows: "Nearly th(irty) years into Trump’s presidency, the border wall barely exists."
It does feel as if it has been that long.
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