Over the weekend, news broke that the Kushner family wasn't letting Jared's position as Donald Trump's go-to Kid In Charge Of Everything In Government Now go to waste. On the contrary, they've been putting on a China-based roadshow, attempting to convince wealthy would-be Chinese immigrants that the Kushner family is their ticket to America. Their pitch: for the low, low investment of a half-million dollars or so into a Kushner property development, investors can gain an EB-5 visa that will grant them an eventual path to permanent U.S. residency. And it just happens that we here on Team Kushner have an inside track to the administration that will help that happen.
[O]ne slide that was presented to the Shanghai audience, describing who will decide the future of the visa program for foreign investors, included a photograph of Mr. Trump, as shown by a snapshot taken by an audience member.
Kushner Companies’ marketing push comes as Mr. Kushner is emerging as a crucial voice on China relations, brokering meetings between his father-in-law and top Chinese government officials.
While Jared Kushner's sister only mentioned in passing that her brother had temporarily divested from the family business in order to help run the American government, as close-knit families often do when making their pitches to wealthy foreign investors, it just so happens that the gears for the Kushner family's current investment machine had been re-greased only a day before.
A much-criticized visa program that allows foreigners to win fast-track immigration in return for investing $500,000 in U.S. properties was extended in a bill signed by President Trump just one day before a sister of senior White House adviser Jared Kushner pitched the program to Chinese investors.
Well, that is a bonus. The program has long been met with skepticism and there was some question as to whether it ought to be reformed or just buried outright, but thanks to an omnibus spending bill and the willingness of the Republican party to approve any grift worth grifting, it was extended without changes just last Friday.
Having been caught in the act of using their ties to the presidency for personal gain, the Kushner Companies wheeled out the necessary apology for you finding out about that. Jared Kushner's name was mentioned only to clarify that he was not going to be involved with this, what with all the surrogate presidentin' he has to do these days, and if the relationship to Donald Trump was specifically hinted at as a reason to trust the Kushner family over some other competitor’s investment scheme well golly gee, that must have been the fault of somebody else.
Kushner Companies later distanced itself from the photo. In a statement to CNNMoney on Monday, the company said the image "was part of a presentation by the event's organizers."
"Kushner Companies had nothing to do with it," it added.
Larry Noble, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit watchdog group, said he was skeptical of that explanation.
"You would think if they are going to take part in a marketing event for one of their properties, that they would want to see the PowerPoint," he said.
You'd think, but the Trump and Kushner families seem to be among the worst vetters of employees and business connections America has ever seen. They keep getting surprised left and right with all the shady things their associates are doing—by gum, how do all these unethical people keep getting inside our doors?
So that's that, then: it's just another day for Trump's extended family to make a buck off the presidency. Second verse, same as the first.