His only official job title at the White House is son-in-law. But Jared Kushner has staged a remarkable — and sometimes controversial — comeback to President Donald Trump’s inner circle.Four years after Kushner left the White House, Trump has handed the husband of his daughter Ivanka a key role in the Gaza and Ukraine peace talks.This week, the 44-year-old also emerged as an investor in a bid by Paramount to buy Hollywood giant Warner Bros., which if successful could mean the Trump family partially owning CNN, the president’s most-hated news channel.Kushner and Ivanka served as special advisors in Trump’s first term. But after his 2020 election loss they decamped to Florida and Kushner vanished into the private sector, insisting he would not return for a second administration.Since then, Kushner has founded an investment company largely funded by the same Middle Eastern countries that he dealt with in the first Trump term — and has become a billionaire, according to Forbes.That has raised ethical questions about possible conflicts of interest, which Kushner has denied and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has branded “frankly despicable.” But it has not stopped Trump, who has long mixed business and politics with family, from bringing him back in from the cold. “We called in Jared,” Trump told the Israeli parliament in October after the Gaza ceasefire deal. “We need that brain on occasion. We gotta get Jared in here.”- ‘Trusted family member’ -The White House said that Kushner was giving “valuable expertise” while stressing that he working as an “informal, unpaid advisor.””President Trump has a trusted family member and talented advisor in Jared Kushner,” Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP, citing Kushner’s “record of success” in the Middle East.Trump and his roving global envoy, businessman Steve Witkoff, “often seek Mr. Kushner’s input given his experience with complex negotiations, and Mr. Kushner has been generous in lending his valuable expertise when asked.”The slim, softly-spoken scion of a property empire — whose father was jailed for tax evasion and later pardoned by Trump — Kushner faced accusations of inexperience when he joined Trump’s first team.But he ended up playing a key role in Trump’s signature diplomatic achievement, the Abraham Accords that saw several Muslim nations recognize Israel.During that time Kushner, who is Jewish, built enduring relationships with Gulf states like Saudi Arabia.As Trump sought a Gaza ceasefire in his second term, he turned again to his son-in-law.Kushner began to be seen around the White House again, and Trump dispatched him and Witkoff to negotiate with Israel, Hamas and Middle Eastern powers.After the Gaza deal, Kushner said his role was only temporary — and joked that he was worried Ivanka would change the locks of their Florida mansion and not let him back in if he stayed on.Yet the following month, Kushner turned up at the Kremlin with Witkoff to meet President Vladimir Putin. Top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Kushner “turned out to be very useful.”- Paramount bid role -Kushner’s business interests hit the headlines again this week when it emerged that his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, was among the investors backing Paramount’s battle with Netflix to buy Warner Bros.It added a political twist to the story, as not only has his father-in-law said he would get “involved” in approving any deal, but Trump also appears determined to clamp down on CNN, which is part of Warner.Kushner founded Florida-based Affinity in 2021, with much of its funding coming from foreign sources, particularly the Middle Eastern governments he’d done business with.Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) gave $2 billion in 2022, the New York Times reported. The Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate Capital together gave around $1.5 billion in 2024, Kushner said in a podcast last year.Kushner’s firm now manages $5.4 billion, according to a press release in September.A US Senate finance committee launched an inquiry last year into whether Affinity was effectively being used as a foreign influence-buying operation with the Trump family ahead of the 2024 election, saying it had won millions in fees from foreign clients without returning any profits.Affinity Partners did not reply when contacted by AFP.Kushner hasn’t commented on the Paramount deal, but he has previously rejected any suggestions of ethical breaches, particularly regarding his Gulf ties.”What people call conflicts of interest, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships,” he told the CBS program “60 Minutes” when it interviewed him and Witkoff in October on the Gaza deal.

The White House on Thursday intensified its attacks on CNN, the news network at the center of a financial battle that President Donald Trump is tied up in politically and through family.Echoing the president’s frequent anti-media barbs, senior members of his administration lashed out. “CNN = Chicken News Network,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote on X Thursday, calling CNN cowardly for not inviting Trump advisor Stephen Miller to be interviewed “presumably because they are scared Stephen will school them.”Vice President JD Vance then shared the post, adding: “If CNN wants to be a real news network it should feature important voices from our administration.”A CNN spokesperson said Miller would be welcome back on the channel, Fox News reported Thursday.”As a news organization, we make editorial decisions about the stories we cover and when, and that depends on the news priorities of the day. We look forward to having Stephen on again in the future as the news warrants,” the CNN spokesperson was quoted as saying.The harshest attack on CNN from the Trump administration came from an official White House account called Rapid Response 47, which went after Kaitlan Collins, one of the network’s most prominent correspondents, saying she “is not a journalist. She is a mouthpiece for the Democrat Party.”On Wednesday, the president confronted another CNN journalist similarly, and said “you know you work for the Democrats, don’t you? You are basically an arm of the Democrat Party.”CNN has yet to comment publicly on those allegations. In the past, the network has responded to criticism of political bias by asserting that it is committed to objective journalism and fairness.- CNN for sale -Founded in 1980 to provide global television news coverage, CNN is currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the media conglomerate at the heart of a bidding war between streaming giant Netflix and Paramount Skydance, the latter of which is led by CEO David Ellison, son of Trump ally Larry Ellison.The president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has joined Paramount’s bid through his investment firm. And Trump has already indicated he intends to get involved in the government’s decision to approve or block a sale, which would typically involve the Justice Department.Under Paramount’s offer, CNN would fall into Ellison’s hands.  Under the Netflix deal, Warner Bros. Discovery would sell off CNN and other cable news properties separately before closing the sale of its studio and streaming operations.The 79-year-old president said Wednesday he wants to ensure CNN gets new ownership as part of the Warner Bros. Discovery sale, seeming to favor a Paramount purchase.”I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue. I think CNN should be sold along with everything else,” Trump said.

An oil tanker seized by American forces off the Venezuelan coast will be brought to a port in the United States, the White House said Thursday, as fears mount of open conflict between the two countries.Washington took control of the tanker in a dramatic raid that saw US forces rope down from a helicopter onto the vessel in an operation that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said was aimed at leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s “regime.”President Donald Trump’s administration has been piling pressure on Venezuela for months with a major naval build-up in the region that has been accompanied by strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats that have killed close to 90 people.Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed support during a phone call with his ally Maduro, but with Moscow’s forces tied down in a grinding war in Ukraine, its capacity to provide aid is limited.”The vessel will go to a US port and the United States does intend to seize the oil,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists of the tanker.”We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black-market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world.”Earlier on Thursday, Noem told a congressional hearing that the tanker operation was “pushing back on a regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs” — a reference to US allegations of narcotics smuggling by Maduro’s government.A video released Wednesday by US Attorney General Pam Bondi showed American forces descending from a helicopter onto the tanker’s deck, then entering the ship’s bridge with weapons raised.Bondi said the ship was part of an “illicit oil shipping network” that was used to carry sanctioned oil.- ‘Blatant theft’ -Venezuela’s foreign ministry said it “strongly denounces and condemns what constitutes blatant theft and an act of international piracy.” “They kidnapped the crew, stole the ship and have inaugurated a new era, the era of criminal naval piracy in the Caribbean,” Maduro himself said at a presidential event on Thursday, adding: “Venezuela will secure all ships to guarantee the free trade of its oil around the world.”UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday expressed concern over the escalating tensions and urged restraint.”We are calling on all actors to refrain from action that could further escalate bilateral tensions and destabilize Venezuela and the region,” his spokesperson said.US media reported that the tanker had been heading for Cuba — another American rival — and that the ship was stopped by the US Coast Guard.Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday he questioned the legality of the tanker seizure and that “any president, before he engages in an act of war, has to have the authorization of the American people through Congress.””This president is preparing for an invasion of Venezuela, simply said. And if the American people are in favor of that, I’d be surprised,” Durbin told CNN.Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a “narco-terrorist” organization last month, and has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture.The US Treausury also imposed new sanctions Thursday targeting three of Maduro’s relatives as well as six companies shipping the South American country’s oil.Trump told Politico on Monday that Maduro’s “days are numbered” and declined to rule out a US ground invasion of Venezuela.The Trump administration alleges that Maduro’s hold on power is illegitimate and that he stole Venezuela’s July 2024 election.Maduro — the political heir to leftist leader Hugo Chavez — says the United States is bent on regime change and wants to seize Venezuela’s oil reserves.

The conservative US state of Indiana on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a congressional map championed by President Donald Trump that would have wiped out two Democratic-held districts — denting Republican hopes for a nine-seat sweep in next year’s midterm elections.Democrats need to flip only three seats to reclaim the US House of Representatives in 2026, and the vote in the Hoosier State’s senate was supposed to be the latest step in Trump’s push for an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting drive aimed at cementing Republican control.Breaking with long-standing political custom, Trump has urged Republican-run states to redraw their maps years before the next census, hoping to capitalize on Republican dominance in state legislatures and map-making bodies.The president had spent significant political capital on the Indiana push — but the ruling state Senate Republicans delivered him a humiliating defeat as more than half voted against the new map, bristling at pressure from the White House.US House Speaker Mike Johnson had told reporters he had been personally calling state lawmakers to shore up support, while Trump mounted his own characteristically forceful intervention, blasting out a social-media tirade demanding a Republican gerrymander.The president had threatened primary challenges against dissenting lawmakers, and after they bucked Trump Thursday he lambasted the state Senate’s top Republican Rodric Bray and said he hopes he loses his next election.”I’m sure he’ll go down,” Trump said at the White House, speaking of Bray after being asked about the failed Indiana redistricting effort. “I’ll certainly support anybody that wants to go against him.”Bray, after earlier Trump criticism, had countered that Washington Republicans were misreading the situation, insisting his caucus simply did not have the votes to pass the map. More than a dozen Republican senators had publicly broken with the effort ahead of the vote.Several Indiana Republicans — including lawmakers Trump had singled out — reported being targeted by swatting incidents or pipe-bomb threats after speaking out against the redistricting plan.The Trump defeat in Indiana comes with Democrats pursuing their own mid-cycle gains.California voters last month approved a Democratic-drawn map projected to add as many as five House seats — a move seen as offsetting Texas’s mid-decade redistricting, which the Supreme Court allowed to proceed despite legal challenges.There are also efforts afoot in Virginia, while Maryland and Illinois are mulling similar action.Beyond their five-seat gain in Texas, Republicans have secured small redistricting wins in North Carolina and Missouri, while Florida Republicans have signaled they may move to revise their map.