JAVANKA IS BACK!
The Couple's Recent PR Moves Show a Return of Confidence
The past few days I’ve been startled to see the revival of something that was seemingly lost during the years of the Trump presidency: the PR savviness of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
But it’s there in the headlines and images flooding the digital news. Saturday night, Ivanka showed up to Kim Kardashians’ 43rd Birthday dinner in Los Angeles, smiling and keeping stumm when paparazzi asked her about her lawyer’s efforts to keep her out of her father’s civil court case in New York.
Looking sensational in a sparkling white crop top and skirt-with-a-long-slit at an the women-only affair, it was a fascinatingly-timed reminder of not only how these past three years, she has separated herself from her father, his legal troubles and his political ambitions - but also of how mainstream social rejection is not something she or her husband want in the long term.
What was most striking to me about her presence at the Kardashian birthday - was that she clearly wanted to be there. And vice versa. Kardashian and co happily posed for the cameras, arms around each other. It was a VERY different sort of interaction from the very awkward efforts at small talk Ivanka conducted when she was at the 2019 G20 Osaka Summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, then British Prime Minister Theresa May, ECB head Christine Lagarde and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.
It was such moments that backfired so spectacularly on the couple when they were in government. Such exchanges were brazen reminders that not only was the couple not qualified to be in the Trump White House, but of the diplomatic havoc kleptocracy can wreak.
For a couple who had prioritized and prided their PR skills, the Washington years were - in terms of brand-management - the nadir. They’d entered DC as a couple more coveted than almost any other at high-profile bi-coastal social events, but by the time they left Washington, they were unwanted in most of their old haunts. They were seen as “complicit” (her), corrupt (him) and incompetent (both). Which is why, most people believe, they slunk off to the plutocratic playground that is Miami. There, they could spent the many millions of dollars they’ve gotten, thanks in part to foreign investors like the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, without the scorn and scrutiny they’d likely attract from former Democrat friends in New York.
The result, as I’ve reported here, was that we’ve seen a surprisingly large number of photographs of Ivanka wake-boarding, golfing, lunching, boating, and going to the hair salon. It was as if she woke up one morning and was suddenly reincarnated as the sole star of the RHOMiami.
But the isolation could only last so long. What is the point of money and influence if you can’t actually use it?
To wit, in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel, Kushner has been publicly voicing his thoughts on the crisis in the Middle East. Albeit in a couple of carefully stage-managed settings. First, he gave a podcast interview to the Russian-born computer scientist, Lex Fridman ) and, second, he was interviewed at the annual Future Invesment Initiative conference in Riyadh, colloquially known as Davos in the Desert.
As is usual with Kushner, the impression he emanates is one of quiet-spoken, humble reasonableness. He is a master at this.
The podcast interview - which clocked in at over almost four hours - was an undeniable branding triumph. With his understated clothes - white T-shirt, black V-neck sweater (albeit there was a rich person’s tan peaking through) - and the fulsome way he praised his interviewer - “I think you did an excellent job of summarizing a lot of the context” - he made it super easy for listeners and viewers to think “empathetic guy, clever guy.”
Which is exactly the sort of thing that the comment box at the bottom of Fridman’s post is flooded with.
One typical comment: “Absolutely phenomenal podcast! I underestimated how knowledgeable Jared is. Truly eye opening episode.”
It’s fair to say that Kushner is extrardinarily knowledgeable about the region and its players.
You cannot take away from him his ground-breaking achievement in the Middle East - the Abraham Accords.
And he may well be right when he says that part of the reason he was able to accomplish this, when so many hadn’t, was precisely to do with his lack of political and diplomatic experience. He wasn’t afraid to take risks and break some eggs.
However, as my readers will know, the trouble with Kushner is that he seems to think that the end justifies the means. For example, if you parse his words to Fridman about the murder of Washington Post journalist, Jamal Kashoggi, it feels like he’s excusing Saudi prince Mohammed Bin Salman for it, because, well, big picture-wise, MBS is a reformer.
(02:34:25) Yeah, so what he said to me was no different than what he ultimately said on 60 Minutes, which was, ” As somebody helping lead this country, I bear responsibility and I’m going to make sure that those who are involved are brought to justice and I’m going to make sure that we put in place reforms to make sure things like this don’t happen again.” It was a horrible situation that occurred. What I saw from him after that was just a doubling and a tripling down on the positive things he was doing, figuring out ways to kind of continue to modernize this society, build opportunity in the kingdom, and to continue to be a better ally to all the different countries that wanted to be aligned with them.
And as for the US $2 billion that MBS has invested with Kushner’s new fund, which many feel looks troublingly like a quid pro quo for former favorable foreign policy? (Kushner has denied this). Well, he asks us to believe that what he’s really focused on with his new fund - is not money - but world peace!
Obviously this was coming off the success that I just had in the Middle East where I did six peace deals there. And one of the notions I wanted to be able to do with the firm was to be able to take money from the Gulf and then to be able to invest it in Israel, to continue to build the economic links between the countries. Again, if countries have more economic ties, I think war and fighting is less likely.
What all this conveniently omits is that Kushner’s diplomatic machinations in the Middle East during the Trump presidency coincided with a ticking time bomb in the Kushner family real estate business. A $1.4 billion loan on 666 Fifth Avenue, a trophy building in New York, was coming due - and no domestic developer would touch it. Ultimately the problem was solved by a Canadian firm whose biggest outside shareholders are from the Middle East.
Nowhere was this mentioned recently. Yet this is the subject of a congressional inquiry. Lex Fridman should shoulder the blame for the oversight. As an interviewer, he’s stilted and unctuous. But given that he pals around with Elon Musk you can see why he was the Chosen One for this interview. In the Kushner-verse, he’s hip.
Still, you have to hand it to Kushner: Overall it was a Highly Successful Marketing Exercise.
Which brings me to my original point - the inevitable seems to be happening. Javanka, as they were once known, seems to be back. The couple appears to be carefully calibrating a return to the milieu they inhabited before 2016.
Or almost the milieu before 2016. Kim Kardashian may yet prove to be the exception, not the rule.
In his interview with Fridman, Kushner used a rather jarring golf metaphor to describe the Biden administration’s handling of the Middle East vs the Trump’s.
How I would play the ball where it lies right now. Keep in mind, we transferred the ball it was on the green. Now it’s almost like it’s gone back 150 yards and it’s in a sand trap.
The ball’s positioning thus described, might aptly also apply to what happened to his and Ivanka’s social standing when they went into the Trump administration.
What happens next?
Well, he says it best:
I think the way that I would play the ball right now is, number one is you have to show strength…
Stay tuned.
Respectfully, who cares? The only stories I am interested about them these days is substance such as exposing any & all corruption they have been involved in, and what they are willing to testify to against other bad actors. Sorry, (not sorry!)
From what you write, I get the idea they are about social rehabilitation. I think the further along her father gets in the court system, the more difficult their social climb will become. Trump will prove to be their Sisyphean rock. I mean, Jared’s father has *already* been to jail; and he shelled out 2.5 mil for the kid to attend Harvard; he of the dimples and smooth skin is known to be a lightweight, so where, really, can he go? One place is a chair in front of a Senate committee. The kid doesn’t even play in the hedge fund world, but that’s what the 2billion$ thank you was for. (I’d always thought he was selling the morning briefings his father-in-law was uninterested in. It has been written that it was he who fingered Khashoggi as being actively against MBS.) My feeling is that Javanka, like Trump and his acolytes, will find that the presidency ruined all their lives.