Wannabe Princess Ivanka Is Back. Why?

Ivanka Trump is back ‘playing government’, or more likely trying to manipulate her daddy again. (That’s no longer easy with Natalie Harp around!) She spent some years trying to stay out of the spotlight. Sadly, like others who seem to mostly disappear (Ann Coulter for example) she has a way of stepping back into the spotlight. For a while she was mostly trying to regain social status but now she’s back attending big White House functions. Conventional wisdom is she wants to ‘work’ Xi because of her patents in China. Maybe so but I think there’s another motive – helping out her P.O.S. hubby Jared Kushner. His financial ties to Saudi Arabia make Ivanka’s Chinese investments look like tip money.  For reasons I’ll explain the Saudis, including Kushner pal MBS have to be plenty pi$$ed at him and Wannabe Princess Ivanka’s daddy.

Ivanka once had her daddy wrapped around her little finger and I’m of the opinion she needs to try and RFK Jr. brainworm her way back into Trump’s head.  As Ursula noted here on PZ earlier Wannabe Princess Ivanka is going all out to get close to her daddy/benefactor these days. As I said a minute ago it’s easy to jump to the conclusion she wants to try and charm Xi and his people to protect her patents/business interests in China. Keep in mind that during the first Trump administration Jarvanka (Jared and Ivanka) gave up their fab NYC lifestyle and moved to DC to ‘play government.’

In Jared’s case he really did become a key player. Us old farts who had reached adulthood by the time Reagan was elected remember his minion (retired General) Alexander Haig who got mocked for being in charge of everything – in part due to his own statements.  Jared certainly seemed to be everywhere doing everything. That btw included getting Trump’s copy of the super highly classified Presidential Daily Brief. Jared it must be remembered used his position to ingratiate himself with countries/players in the middle east with vast resources. Someday we might learn what criminal acts Jared Kushner committed to get someone to bail him out of his disastrous investment in a building in NYC. There was other stuff too.

What really stands out besides that murky real estate deal is that unlike his criminally convicted father Jared was clearly not all that savvy a businessman. Yet the Saudi Investment Fund gave him $2 Billion.  Frankly, I haven’t followed Jared all that closely, at least until we started seeing him pop up again in Trump 2.0.  Once again he’s some sort of diplomatic Special Envoy and yes, including in the middle east.  Trump has gotten a pile of money himself with Saudi help but as we see in this article from Alternet he’s blowing them off now that they need his help.

Like others Saudi Arabia has tankers filled with oil that can’t transit the Strait of Hormuz.  To make matters worse, the Houthis bombed their major alternative – a big pipeline. Even a country as rich as Saudi Arabia feels the impact of no longer getting their oil to buyers.  It’s pretty much the only thing they have to sell.  It makes sense they’d ask the United States for military help with the Houthis.  After all, as the linked article starts out talking about how the Saudis helped Trump and his family acquire billions. So it’s easy to see why they’d think since the Houthis have caused us (and allies in the region) no small amount of trouble  Trump would be receptive.  Not only did Trump blow them off, he went and humiliated them publicly by describing phone interactions during a press conference:

“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly called Trump twice after the pipeline hit, asking the United States to bomb the Houthis to slow their advancement,” reported Foreign Affairs journalist Nicholas Grossman, a professor of international relations at the University of Illinois and editor of Arc Digital, on Thursday. “The White House declined, and when asked about Yemen at a press conference, the U.S. president said this: ‘The Houthis called us. They don’t want to fight with us. They let us know they don’t want to fight with us. They don’t want us to go after them. They would much prefer not having us involved, and they are letting most ships go through. There’s just one country they’re not too happy with.'”

The linked article isn’t that long and worth your time to read.  It emphasizes both how Trump and his family (including Jared and therefore his daughter) has parlayed ‘relationships’ with countries/governments in the region to breathtaking financial advantage. Yet he’s left not just the Saudi but other countries we’ve partnered with in a lurch, both financially and militarily since the Iranians (and Houthis) don’t have the means to shoot missiles into the United states they DO have the ability to bomb countries over there.  And have been doing so to a more devastating effect than we’ve known.

However it’s the Saudis who are the big kahuna when it comes to money and oil. Jared has spent years making nice with them, and in particular their ruler Mohammed Bin Salman.  Despite Jared’s not so great record as a businessman he’s gotten showered with billions of dollars and not just that original two billion from the Saudi Investment Fund.  This year we learn from Truthout the House Judiciary Committee has started taking a hard look at Kushner:

Mr. Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, has amassed approximately $6.16 billion in assets under management — including $1.2 billion in the past year alone — with an extraordinary 99 percent of its funding derived from foreign nationals. These include sovereign wealth funds operated by the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. At the same time, Mr. Kushner has assumed a central role in sensitive geopolitical negotiations across the Middle East and beyond.

Well, since that committee is controlled by Republicans not much has happened since March but that will change once Democrats have regained control of the House. While they’re at it, they can also look into a couple of things that have happened since then. For example according to Mediaite in May Kushner and the Saudis entered into discussion of another $5 Billion in investment to Kushner’s firm. I haven’t been able to find out how that worked out. However, what I can report is that according to CNBC Kushner’s private equity firm company Affinity Partners helped the Saudi PIF close a $55 Billion deal to buy video game maker EA (Electronic Arts).  I wonder what Kushner’s commission was on that one!

The point is that the Saudis have given Kushner TONS of money, and because of that other wealth nations in the region have ponied up to him as well.  They expect something in return and since unlike Ivanka who until recently kept a lot of distance between herself and daddy Jared has gotten involved again and to a significant degree. He’s been acting on behalf of the United States while also leveraging his position to make money and lots of it.

It’s not a stretch to think there’s plenty of corruption involved and surely some of it can be prosecuted. As I said it’s almost certain Democrats will at least control the House and its Judiciary Committee. It’s far from a lock but there’s a good chance the Senate Judiciary committee could be under Democratic control too.  I assume that Sheldon Whitehouse will take over as chair since Dick Durbin retired. (Whitehouse SHOULD have been ranking member but that’s another topic entirely) The DOJ under Todd Blanche won’t do jack but they can’t stop those committees from getting to work – with subpoena power.

You might say Blanche won’t enforce referrals for prosecution if Kushner and others ignore those subpoenas but they can uncover enough to let state courts (looking at you New York and Delaware) do their own thing.  And the Saudis who are losing face big time in the region might decide to teach Jared a lesson and offer enough cooperation that like his father he’ll learn what prison looks like from the inside.

From where I sit, THAT is why Wannabe Princess Ivanka is suddenly trying to work her way back into being daddy’s sick obsession. She will be cooing in Trump’s ear that he really needs to rethink helping out the Saudis (and others) by ‘taking out’ the Houthis.  And her own China stuff?  Well, her prenup with Jared no doubt means in case of a divorce (and she’d dump him if he was likely headed to jail) she’d be mostly worth what she attained as a Trump. Sure, she’d get some of Jared’s ill-gotten gains but she might not want to fight for them. Doing so would mean SHE would face questions about how much she knew (and when she knew it) about Jared’s business dealings.  So  yes, I suppose she was in fact at the WH trying to hedge her bet with the Chinese.

This is something to keep an eye on next year.  Trump’s own corruption is baked in with the public but add in a fresh angle complete with family drama and who knows?  If we have a blue wave Republicans will already be looking ahead to when Trump is gone and this might prompt enough of them to openly turn on him that it will be the end of him.

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