There\u2019s been quite a bit of attention paid in recent months to Donald Trump\u2019s adult children, who\u2019ve taken on a controversial role in their father\u2019s transition team, making the president-elect\u2019s conflict-of-interest problems considerably worse.
But when it comes to post-inaugural influence, it\u2019s not just Trump\u2019s adult kids who\u2019ll need scrutiny; it\u2019s also his son-in-law .
President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who emerged as a key figure in the Republican\u2019s successful 2016 campaign, will be named senior adviser to the president, the campaign announced Monday. [\u2026]
Kushner was an influential behind the scenes confidant to his father-in-law during last year\u2019s election and has continued to be a leading voice in Trump\u2019s transition to the White House. But a number of legal questions potentially complicate the billionaire real estate developer\u2019s role in the incoming administration.
Transition officials insist there\u2019s no controversy here, but there are three main angles to keep an eye on.
First, appointing Kushner to this post may not be entirely legal. Anti-nepotism laws have been on the books for decades, limiting a president\u2019s power to appoint his relatives to powerful governmental posts. As a Washington Post report noted, it\u2019s \u201cnot completely clear whether this law applies specifically to White House staff,\u201d and Kushner is taking steps \u2013 including foregoing a federal salary \u2013 to help mitigate potential legal trouble.
It\u2019s a safe bet there will be a lawsuit anyway, just as there was when then-President Clinton appointed his wife to lead a health care task force in 1993.
Second, there are the potential conflicts of interest. Kushner has said he\u2019ll step down from his real-estate company and sell many of his assets, but as the New York Times reported , \u201c[B]ecause he plans to sell to his brother or to a family trust controlled by his mother, some ethics lawyers interviewed questioned how meaningful the divestiture would be.\u201d
What\u2019s more, just last week, Kushner was working on \u201ca deal with a major Chinese financial group with close ties to the Chinese government. The Kushner family business has done billions of dollars of business with foreign companies that threatens to complicate his role at the White House.\u201d
Finally, presidents usually appoint senior White House advisors who have some kind of political or governmental expertise. Kushner is the 36-year-old head of his family\u2019s real-estate company, with no relevant experience in government.
Indeed, the transition office\u2019s press statement announcing Kushner\u2019s role as a senior advisor to the incoming president said he\u2019ll \u201cwork closely with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon to execute President-elect Trump\u2019s agenda.\u201d And while I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll try, Priebus and Bannon have as much experience in government as Kushner \u2013 which is to say, none.
We can go even further down this road. The president-elect, the first in American history to have literally no background in any kind of public service at any level, will have a chief of staff, a chief strategist, a chief counselor, and a senior advisor with a combined total of zero days of governing experience. Literally, none.
It\u2019ll be quite an experiment in how amateurs perform in the White House.<\/p>\n

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