President Trump reportedly regrets taking as much advice as he has from his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Axios reports.
Moving forward, the president is going to rely less on Kushner’s advice and more on instinct. Placing too much weight on Kushner’s suggestions has caused damage to Trump politically, the president believes, according to Axios. Among his regrets, Trump now thinks he never should have allowed Kushner to spend time and political capital on criminal justice reform, an issue that Trump did not run on and that voters did not expressly support him for.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany pushed back against the Axios report.
“President Trump is very proud of the historic work that he’s done to benefit all communities. The First Step Act made historic strides toward rectifying racial disparities in sentencing while his executive order to secure America’s streets works with our nation’s heroic police officers to ensure we have safe policing and safe communities,” McEnany said.
Kushner is one of the most influential people working in the administration besides the president himself. Trump has tapped Kushner to lead on many different initiatives, such as trade negotiations with Mexico and dispensing supplies from the national stockpile amid the coronavirus. Kushner was a key player in what became the longest government shutdown in U.S. history beginning on Dec. 21, 2018, and lasting 35 days.
Kushner has been a controversial figure in the White House, blamed for many of the administration’s missteps by people who tend to support Trump. Fox News host Tucker Carlson offered a stinging critique of the president’s son-in-law on a June 1 episode of the popular cable host’s evening show, according to Politico.
Carlson held Kushner, along with Trump, responsible for the administration’s slow response to recent violent protests, as well as the administration’s lack of ability to curb the violence. Even in Washington, D.C., violent protests took place blocks from the White House, and thieves smashed windows and looted stores.
Carlson said that Kushner, as well as other White House officials, “don’t seem to understand … the gravity of the moment.” The Fox host also said that Kushner took the president’s voters for granted.
“No one has more contempt for Donald Trump’s voters than Jared Kushner does,” Carlson said.
Despite criticisms, Trump has largely stood by Kushner. If the relationship is souring, however, the chance for police reform may sour with it. Trump has placed Kushner in charge of the White House’s stance on police reform, thought the president himself is more in favor of taking a strong pro-police position.
“We want to make sure we don’t have any bad actors in there, and sometimes you’ll see some horrible things like we witnessed recently, but 99 — I say 99.9, but let’s go with 99% of them are great, great people, and they’ve done jobs that are record-setting — record-setting,” Trump said at a meeting with law enforcement in early June.
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