Jared Kushner is now reportedly overseeing construction of Trump's border wall


With the 2020 election less than a year away and his long-promised border wall nowhere near being completed, President Trump has turned to his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, to get things moving, current and former administration officials told The Washington Post.
Getting the wall up is one of Trump's top priorities going into 2020, officials said, and Kushner is now the point person, holding regular meetings at the White House with government officials and asking them to keep him updated on where the wall is being built and how much it is costing. He is especially concerned with the fact that the government needs to seize more than 800 pieces of private property in order to get 450 miles of barriers up by the end of next year, and he is pushing U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to hurry up and get this done, the Post reports.
This is just the latest high-profile job for Kushner, who has also been tasked with brokering a Middle East peace deal and tackling criminal justice reform. Several officials told the Post he's in over his head, and unable to comprehend various aspects of the job, including the importance of having multiple agencies work on major projects. One official said Kushner took a "much more hands-on role in figuring out, mile by mile, how to get more wall up. It didn't help put wall up faster and cheaper. His interventions actually just created more inefficiency in the process."
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.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Bondi stonewalls on Epstein, Comey in Senate face-off
Speed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi denied charges of using the Justice Department in service of Trump’s personal vendettas
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to Chicago
Speed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in Oregon
Speed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US