Jared Kushner lost his Top Secret security clearance a few days ago and he’s plenty upset about it. He believes there’s a conspiracy against him, and not just from the Deep State but from a lot closer to home, namely John Kelly.
CNN:
Kushner also feels that he has come under fire from his own West Wing colleagues recently, with the notion that "everyone is out to get him," a source said. This person noted that Kushner remains exasperated by Kelly's decision to overhaul the security clearance process, feeling that it is mainly directed at him. He has been asking others, "Why is John Kelly doing this?"
___
But he's not intending to leave his position in the near-term. And Kelly has told colleagues that he believes Kushner should continue in his job for now, and thinks he'll be able to manage his portfolio even without the top-level clearance.
___
Trump, meanwhile, has been frustrated by the media coverage of his senior adviser and son-in-law in recent days, telling associates that Kushner is being treated unfairly and that the media has been unnecessarily tough on him. He has also complained that Kelly appears to be making enemies both inside and outside the White House.
___
But he's not prepared to dismiss Kelly nor is Kelly prepared to leave. While morale in the West Wing is low, both Trump and Kelly believe the current tension will blow over.
The tension may blow over but the damage has been done. Jared needs a billion dollars and he needs it fast. Of course he had problems filling out his SF-86, who wouldn’t, when you’ve been negotiating back channels to the Kremlin (and not for purposes of discussing anything legal, obviously) and attempting to sell nuclear starter kits to the Saudis? Rick Wilson, Daily Beast:
The stench of his venality and desperation hangs around him like stripper perfume, cloying and obvious. Jared all but hiked up his sassy pink petticoats while whistling “Hey, sailor!” to the Chinese, Israeli, Arab, and Russian investors he begged to invest in his failing 666 Fifth Avenue white elephant.
...The knowledge that every foreign intelligence agency in the world saw Kushner’s desperation for cash no doubt set America’s beleaguered counterintelligence community into a state of raw panic. The fact that Kushner is up to his hot-yogaed ass in dealings with Sergei Kislyak and was a key member of the infamous Trump Tower meeting in which Russia offered a quid for a still mysterious quo is just the icing on that cake.
...Although President Postliterate Bestwords has his PDB presented in graphic-novel form or performed by costumed dancers, Jared was apparently an aggressive consumer of intelligence, ordering up briefings and information outside even his broad purview. What he knows after a year in this position makes him the juiciest intelligence target in the world.
Where does this leave us? At least the unbridled flow of information to Jared has been staunched, at long last, but at least it happened. Thank heavens for small favors. And, for what it’s worth, Kelly and Jarvanka are now unabashedly at war. They disposed of Priebus rather handily and even Bannon, but Kelly is a different matter altogether. Make no mistake, there’s a war in the West Wing.
Trump’s nepotism always put the soft-handed Kushner on an impossible pedestal. By the time it was clear even to a slowcoach like Trump that Jared couldn’t be the Minister of All Portfolios, it was too late. The imagined power couple of Jared and Ivanka waged their snippy, passive-aggressive media war from their offices in the West Wing, leaking diligently to boot first Reince Priebus, and then Steve Bannon from the White House. The humiliation of being ousted by Jarvanka must rankle Bannon to this day. Kelly was their next target, but he moved first, and struck hard.
For now, Kelly has skillfully maneuvered his boss into a tight corner. Trump can either give in to the simpering “But Daaaaaaaady” whinge of Princess Ivanka and restore Jared to his full suite of security clearances, or face a tornado of razor cuts from leaks over Jared’s business dealings and behavior.
The almost certain knowledge that Robert Mueller isn’t done with Jared by a long stretch doesn’t make it any easier for Trump, even as the red flags thrown up by Rod Rosenstein over the president’s son-in-law and very special adviser were one more sign of the urgency of closing up the leakiest, riskiest White House in history. The best part of this trap is that Trump (R-Oppositional Defiant Disorder) will be tempted to do the one thing that will make his political situation more politically tenuous and legally risky by restoring Jared’s clearances. It’s within his rights as the president, but he would be dumber than a sack of hammers to do so. A smart president would have already told Jared to pack up and get the hell out, but... oh, who are we kidding?
A smart president would have already reconciled himself to the fact that his daughter married a dummy and would have accorded him the honor of sitting at the head of the adult’s table at every holiday but certainly wouldn’t have put him in the West Wing. Even the likes of Ann Coulter advised Trump he shouldn’t put his children on staff. But bear in mind at all times, Trump doesn’t know Jared’s stupid because Trump is even stupider still. Trump was actually considering Jared for Secretary of State, according to Michael Wolff’s book, until Steve Bannon quashed that particular idiotic notion and devised the Senior Adviser positions for Jarvanka. Wolff also reports that Jared and Ivanka have discussed which one of them should run for president in 2024.
The idiocy in Trump World is a bottomless mine shaft.