President Trump's hardline stance on Qatar emerged not long after his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner's attempt to score a "half-billion dollar investment" from a Qatari billionaire fizzled, The Intercept reported Monday.
Trump in recent weeks has accused Qatar of funding terrorist activities and taken credit for the ongoing blockade several Gulf nations have imposed on Qatar. Kushner has reportedly "played a key behind-the scenes role in hardening the U.S. posture toward the embattled nation," The Intercept reported.
But before Kushner was involved in these talks, he was reportedly in negotiations with former Qatari prime minister and billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani to secure an investment as he worked to refinance the Kushner family's stake in a building on New York City's Fifth Avenue. The Intercept noted that Kushner and his family are "severely underwater" on the property, located at 666 Fifth Ave., and that "it is difficult to overstate just how important to Kushner the investment ... is for him, his company, and his family's legacy in real estate."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The deal between Thani and Kushner hasn't panned out, with some saying it's dead and others saying it's simply "on hold as the deal's mix of loans and equity was reconsidered." Either way, the existence of this deal and Trump's subsequent stance on Qatar raises serious questions, The Intercept contended:
If the deal is not entirely dead, that means Jared Kushner is on the one hand pushing to use the power of American diplomacy to pummel a small nation while on the other his firm is hoping to extract an extraordinary amount of capital from there for a failing investment. If, however, the deal is entirely dead, the pummeling may be seen as intimidating to other investors on the end of a Kushner Companies pitch. [The Intercept]
Read the full story at The Intercept.
-
Can Trump put his tariffs on stronger legal footing?Today's Big Question Appeals court says 'emergency' tariffs are improper
-
Film reviews: The Roses, Splitsville, and TwinlessFeature A happy union devolves into domestic warfare, a couple's open marriage reaps chaos, and an unlikely friendship takes surprising turns
-
Thought-provoking podcasts you may have missed this summerThe Week Recommends Check out a true crime binger, a deep-dive into history and more
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
