President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner, has recently been outed as the most likely “person of interest” in the FBI’s current Russia-Trump probe. That has not stopped him from throwing his weight around White House deals. In a recent meeting with a delegation of high ranking Saudi Arabian officials, Kushner took an unorthodox and unbelievable tactic to try to get a weapons deal done.
The New York Times reports that Kushner was negotiating a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis, including planes, ships, bombs, and a missile defense radar system. The radar system is developed by Lockheed Martin, and it was regarding this item that Kushner raised eyebrows with his strange maneuver.
After it was determined that the cost of the radar system may be an issue for the Saudis, Kushner paused the meeting to personally call the CEO of Lockheed Martin, Marillyn A. Hewson, and asked her to decrease the price in order to make the deal happen. The Times reports the mood in the room:
“As his guests watched slack-jawed, Ms. Hewson told him she would look into it.”
Kushner is perhaps the single most powerful person in the Trump administration. And, although dealing with the President’s son-in-law and a mid-meeting call to a CEO of a major defense company are certainly out of the ordinary, nothing about either one of these incidents appears to be illegal. And, although the Trump team is already hailing this as a shrewd business deal and a new beginning for relations with the Middle East, the Times also reports:
“But former officials pointed out that President Barack Obama, whose arms sales to Saudi Arabia totaled $115 billion, had already approved several of the weapons in the package.”
So all Kushner did was give a thumbs up to a deal Obama already approved? Next we’ll see Trump himself bowing before the Saudi King… whoops.
Watch below to see why Jared may not be inking these deals for long:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SntveFM-5k4
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons User Tabercil / CC BY 2.0
