Kushner Faces Potential Congressional Scrutiny Over Foreign Business Dealings

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For the last 10 years, I have ignored false and misleading stories about me and focused on the work. But the cycle has gotten out of control where old lies get repeated as fact. New ones get added and the record becomes increasingly distorted. I mean, you're such a loser. What are you whining about? What record is getting distorted? You brought in billions of dollars from autocrats in the Middle East. And now you as an unelected, unappointed, I don't even know what the hell you're supposed to be. You are negotiating on behalf of the United States and you are further inflicting pain and suffering on the people in the United States and people throughout the world. He goes on to talk about how, so from time to time, I'm going to respond. Not to every allegation, but when the truth matters, I'll put the facts and supporting information out publicly and people can judge for themselves. So Jared Kushner's saying, I'm going to control the narrative right now. Because I feel that I'm under attack. I've made hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from Middle East autocrats. But I'm the one under attack. I'm going to be the victim right now. Do you see how he's setting this up before Democrats take control of the House and the Senate? And by the way, you know he's going to try to squirm out of subpoenas and he's going to assert executive privilege and deliberative process privilege and this privilege. And I'm not allowed to testify in their state secrets. You know he's going to go that route, but I'm just curious. What does Jared Kushner want to get off of his chest? What does he really upset about? How he's upset about a CNN article and a CNN article that talked about how Jared Kushner's investment firm Affinity is the largest shareholder in an Israeli financial company with at least $456 million invested in nine firms supplying Israel's military. This is a CNN report. And so Kushner's Affinity partners now holds 7.4% in Phoenix financial. This Israeli company that has major investments in all of these Israeli military companies. Affinity, which that Kushner's company used to hold a 10% stake, it's worth over $1 billion. He sold some shares, but it's worth over $1 billion. Since they invested a few years back, the value has increased significantly as the genocide accelerated in Gaza. And there are investments that are made by this company, Phoenix Financial, in other companies, like Elbit Systems, Israel's largest arms maker, $265 million, flowed from Phoenix Financial to Elbit, $40 million in Reshift Technologies, which makes fuses for Shells used in Gaza, $68 million in next vision, which makes cameras for military drones used in Gaza. Phoenix also holds stakes in Caterpillar, whose D9 bulldozers are used by the Israeli military to ethnically cleanse communities in Gaza, as well as other parts of occupied Palestine and Lebanon, and in Israel shipyards and key Israeli Navy supplier. Just take a look at the stock of Elbit Systems over the past five years or so or four years. It went up 376%, and so the money from Kushner, Affinity Partners, that's Kushner's private equity firm, that money then went into Phoenix Financial. Phoenix Financial then invested in these Israeli military companies, and those stocks surged as the genocide in Gaza took place. And so let's take a look at what Kushner is saying is wrong with the CNN article. And we should preview what Kushner is going to argue if and when he's subpoenaing. You know, CNN published a deeply misleading story in headline, suggesting that my diplomatic work in the Middle East somehow benefited investments in Israeli defense companies. But CNN's own reporting says otherwise, buried behind a paywall, it acknowledges, quote, CNN found no indication that Kushner's actions as a diplomat directly affected the investments reviewed. Well, just pause there. I believe Kushner referred to his new Gaza plan as a master plan. He referred to building resorts in Gaza before. He is unfortunately, despite not being appointed or elected and no American other than Trump regime oligarchs want him in this role. I'm not even sure they want him. I mean, Trump wants him in this role. He's been the main person with Wiccoff apparently dealing with the run and causing massive catastrophic consequences in that area. And you're saying that your role has no bearing on what's taking place at all in Israel's military. No, no, no, nothing like you think that we're that stupid. But let's go on and let's see how Kushner describes it. Phoenix is not a defense company. He says, okay, we know that it's a financial company that invests in a lot of companies, including defense companies. So you put money in Phoenix. Phoenix puts money in Israeli military companies. That seems to be pretty basic. We all understand that, Jared. But this is what he says. It's one of Israel's largest publicly traded financial institutions, highly regulated and managing our approximately $220 billion across thousands of investments. Okay, but you're their largest shareholder. Now, you don't have a controlling stake, but you are the largest single shareholder in this company. And then Kushner says, think of Phoenix as the Israeli equivalent of Vanguard or fidelity. Very relatable to most Americans there, Kushner. Yeah, well, think about it like Vanguard or fidelity. It manages the retirement savings of millions of Israelis. Yes, that's partially true what it does, but it also invests in Israeli military firms and military equipment in addition to investing in and managing the retirement and savings of millions of Israelis. The savers don't choose the individual investments and neither do I. I have no role in deciding what Phoenix buys or sells. It has performed very well for affinity and our investors are up more than five times since our initial investment. And a lot of what Phoenix invests in did very well as it invested in a lot of military equipment and military stuff during the genocide in Gaza. And during all of these catastrophic wars that are taking place affinity is an SEC registered investment firm. Oh, that's supposed to make us feel confident. I mean, the Trump regime has gutted the SEC, the SEC. Yeah, the SEC is going to really regulate Jared Kushner. Sure. Got a chair. He goes on to say, our investment in Phoenix is public in dates to before Trump was reelected. And before I return to public service, affinity does not own the defense companies highlighted in CNN story. No one's saying you own the defense come saying you invest in Phoenix and Phoenix invest in the defense companies. I mean, what's so hard? We do you think we're stupid? Like we understand that's the way it works. And when you are responsible for a lot of the catastrophic things happening that's escalating war and war companies are making money and you're making money by putting money in a holding company that's investing in the war companies. We got a lot of questions and we have a lot of problems with that. Those facts make for a less provocative headline, but a much more accurate story. I know it provocative. Oh, so provocative. What a weird word. What words are you talking about? Provocative. No, we just think it's wrong. We think the behavior should not happen. This is not how public servants behave. And we don't even know who the hell you are or what you're even doing. And I don't even know why you're whining like this. Like a little baby. Just grow the hell up. What What are you whining about? This leading story is well known. not distract me from the work President Trump has asked me to do. Your father-in-law? Oh, my, my, my daddy and my father-in-law. They won't, this will not distract. What work are you doing? You, you, you haven't made any deal anywhere. Seriously, help end wars, bring people together and pursue peace. That work is too important. Well, now the way you describe it, like Vanguard, I actually think you actually are saying it's worse than what we thought. So here's how I understand it. You brought in all this money from Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia gave you two billion dollars, and Qatar and UAE gave you $1.5 billion, and some of the other kingdoms gave you some money as well, so anywhere between four and $6 billion. Because you're dumb, yeah, Jared, I know you watch this, because you're a dummy, you don't know how to actually deploy this capital yourself, so instead you take big chunks of this money and you give it to Phoenix Financial and Israeli holding company. So you take the money from Saudi Arabia, which may not otherwise want to invest directly in Israeli companies for reasons that we know the distinction between Saudi Arabia and Israel. You take their money and Qatarimoney and UAE money, you take it and you're like, okay, I'm now going to put your money from my fund into the Phoenix Financial Fund, and there are some other investments to be clear, but the biggest chunk goes to Phoenix Financial, and we'll let them do it. Then you are sent off, dumb and dumb, or you and Whitcoff to the Middle East, hey, everybody look at Whitcoff and Kushner, we don't know what the hell we're doing. Cause escalation there, cause escalation in Ukraine, wars everywhere, Phoenix Financial, which has investments in lots of war companies and companies that are involved in the genocide of Gaza, they make a lot more money, so your fund invests in their fund, and then everybody's making money right here, and then you brag, look, we got a five times return. And you just gave the money to Phoenix Financial because you Kushner Financial don't know what you're doing. That's my opinion, feel free to disagree with it, but it seems pretty obvious. I have something crazy I have to say, so just hear me out. I don't mind scooping my cat's litter box anymore, honestly, ever since I started feeding my cat's smalls, their poop has been healthier, smaller and a lot less smelly. That's because smalls is fresh human grade cat food that's made from high quality meat, not cheap fillers. You see, meat is easy for my cats to digest, which means their bodies absorb more nutrients and healthier poops come out of their rear end. In contrast, the stuff I used to feed my cat was made with grains and artificial ingredients that were hard on my cat's body, and their nasty poops were proof of that. 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And maybe that's why these countries, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, I'm just gonna go out on all of them here, Kushner. It's why they continue to warmonger because their individual profits are also tied to the escalation of this war. That's how MBS is making money and that's how Abu Dhabi's leaders are making money and that's how the Qataris are, ah, got it, got it, am I right, am I on to something over here? And so there it goes. And I like this story over here from Mother Jones where it talks about how in 2021 when Kushner was out there starting, you know, this fund, his PowerPoint was so awful and it devoted most of it to saying how great he was. And actually the Saudi Arabia, sovereign wealth fund, they told MBS, do not put money here. You don't think he knows what he's doing, they don't have any financial competence. But MBS was like, well, this is a good way to bring our money into certain things that we may not otherwise be able to put our money into this kind of where he was going there. And then where they saw if Trump gets reelected, this could be helpful for our geopolitical position. Little did they know or they should have known that Trump's a con artist and a fraud and a sex predator and a deviant and an awful despicable thing. And so Saudi Arabia is now suffering and all these Arab nations are suffering as a result of Trump's catastrophic war and around and Trump's incompetence. But everybody was out there just focused on the greed and now we see the consequences of that. Let me share with you this one first. This is Kushner recently describing the plan, you know, how he sees things going great in Gaza and things are going really amazing. I'm here. I'm a volunteer of the government. Listen to what he says over here. Play this clip. I have not joined the administration. So I'm still just a volunteer like other businessmen who, you know, who volunteered to help the government when asked. The level of engagement has definitely been a lot more than I anticipated. You know, it really got started with Gaza. I was helping, you know, Steve Wichoff, who's really an amazing human being and, you know, he's really made a big sacrifice to go and devote his life to trying to make a difference on some of these very, very challenging issues. And, you know, I know firsthand how lonely it is to be in those jobs and how hard it is when everyone's, you know, rooting against your success. And so I spent a lot of time helping Steve, you know, just quietly. And then when things got very intense with Gaza, Steve and the president asked me to get more involved operationally, which obviously, you know, when the president asked you to do something you do it. And we worked together incredibly well. We're able to achieve an outcome that I think nobody felt was possible. I mean, for two years, the war in Gaza was raging. It was causing really a big dark cloud over the entire world. And I think that it was something we were able to get in and, you know, really with the great help of our partners in Qatar and Egypt and Turkey and many others who helped, we were able to get to a great outcome. And here is where he describes the island in Albania about how he and the Roth childs were looking at this incredible island in Albania. And they met Eddie Rama, the leader of Albania. There's this is amazing. Listen to what he says over here, here play this clip. I was on a vacation after we left government in the summer of 2021. We were on our friend Nat Roth child's boat. We got picked up in Montenegro and then we started sailing over to Corfu. And we spent a couple days in Albania. One of the nights there, Prime Minister Rama came to the boat. I had not met him when I was in government, but I was very, very impressed with his vision for what he wanted to do with Albania. I really didn't know anything about the country. I didn't understand the history and the darkness of the history with the communism and the terrible leadership actually led to it being fully undeveloped as a nation. But Eddie came in. He has one of the cool things I was attracted to is the fact that he seemed like a very skilled politician as a very strong and smart leader, but also the fact that he was an artist. I thought it would be very cool to see what a country really led and built by an artist could be somebody with amazing taste and great creativity. And so I was just intrigued by it. And then before we went to Corfu, we stopped in Bhutrent, which was also a spectacular sight and just really felt to me like it showed the potential of the country. So much amazing beauty, the water, we did a lot of swimming, a lot of hiking. The country just had incredible natural beauty, but it seemed like a place that nobody knew or understood. And so, didn't think much about it for about a year and then about a year later, we started looking at opportunities in the Balkans. This is what Kushner said as he said Putin told him the timeline for what Putin wants to achieve in Ukraine and that as a mediator, that's very important to Kushner, listen to what he said, play this clip. Look, I think right now, from the Ukraine perspective, I mean, President Putin flayed out his line of what he wants to achieve. If Ukraine wanted to withdraw to that line, then obviously, we have the rest of the deal set up and put together. Ukraine right now does not want to do that. And obviously, our job is the mediators to figure out how can we come up with a creative solution that doesn't violate their desires and that helps them achieve their objective and does in a way that we can get Russia to end the conflict in a way that hopefully allows both parties to move forward in their framework that where this doesn't happen again. And this is Kushner previously talking about the master plan that he has in Gaza. This is real. This is what he said here. Play this clip. We've developed ways to redevelop Gaza. Gaza's President Trump is saying has amazing potential and this is for the people of Gaza and we've developed it into zones. In the beginning, we were toying with the idea of saying, let's build a free zone and then we have a Hamas zone and then we said, you know what? Let's just plan for catastrophic success. We Hamas signed a deal to demilitarize that is what we are going to enforce. People ask us what our plan B is. We do not have a plan B. We have a plan. We signed an agreement. We are all committed to making that agreement work. There's a master plan. We'll be doing it in phasing. In the Middle East, they build cities like this in two, three million people. They build this in three years. And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen. Roth will start with. This will show a lot of workforce housing. We think this could be done in two, three years. We've already started removing the rubble and doing some of the demolition and then new Gaza. It could be a hope. It could be a destination. Have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive. Have great employment. Once this starts going, we think there should be 100% full employment and opportunity for everybody there. And we have a lot of data on what can be, but we think that this really gives the Gaza people an opportunity to live their aspirations, but it all starts with security and it all starts with governance. And so it'll be fascinating as we see more posts, I suppose, from Kushner, defending himself or wanting to put out statements, but Kushner is an idiot. Kushner's main investment. He's a trust fund, idiot. His main investment during Trump's first term that building on Fifth Avenue was heading into bankruptcy and he got bailed out by a fund that also got its money from the Qataris and others. And you know, this is the guy out there, him and Whitcoff. I mean, like truthfully, it's it's dumb and dumber, but pay attention to the fund. Pay attention to what's going on there. What's what's really happening? Hit subscribe. Let's get to seven million subscribers. And thanks for watching. Hey, if you want the full story, how democracy got here and how we take it back, pre-order our new book WTF America today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this. [Music]