Jared Kushner facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jared Kushner
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Kushner in 2025
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| Director of the Office of American Innovation | |
| In office March 27, 2017 – January 20, 2021 |
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| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | Ja'Ron Smith |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Brooke Rollins |
| Senior Advisor to the President | |
| In office January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021 |
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| President | Donald Trump |
| Member of the Indian Creek Village Council | |
| Assumed office July 8, 2024 |
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| Preceded by | Javier Holtz |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Jared Corey Kushner
January 10, 1981 Livingston, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican (2018–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
Democratic (1999–2009) Independent (2009–2018) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parents | Charles Kushner Seryl Kushner |
| Relatives |
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| Education | |
| Occupation |
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| Awards | Order of the Aztec Eagle (2018) Order of Ouissam Alaouite (2021) Hungarian Order of Merit (2022) |
Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He is married to Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Kushner served as a senior advisor to President Trump from 2017 to 2021. He also led the Office of American Innovation.
Before working in government, Kushner worked in real estate with his family's business, Kushner Companies. He took on a larger role in the company after his father, Charles Kushner, faced legal problems in 2005. Jared married Ivanka Trump in 2009. He also bought the The New York Observer newspaper in 2006.
Kushner was very involved in Donald Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign. When Trump became president, Kushner became one of his most trusted advisors. In the White House, he worked on criminal justice reform, trade deals, and peace in the Middle East.
After leaving the White House in 2021, Kushner started a private investment company called Affinity Partners.
Contents
Early Life and Schooling
Jared Corey Kushner was born on January 10, 1981, in Livingston, New Jersey. His parents are Seryl and Charles Kushner, who was a real estate developer. His father's parents were survivors of the Holocaust who came to the United States from Belarus in 1949.
Kushner was raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish family. He went to a Jewish high school called the Frisch School. In 1999, he started at Harvard University. While in college, he was involved in buying and selling real estate in Massachusetts, which made a large profit for his family's company. He graduated from Harvard in 2003 with a degree in government.
After Harvard, Kushner went to New York University. He earned degrees in both law and business in 2007. During this time, he worked as an intern for the Manhattan district attorney's office and a law firm in New York.
Business Career
After his father stepped away from the family business in 2005, Kushner took on a bigger role. He helped the company grow by buying nearly $7 billion worth of property over the next ten years.
Real Estate Ventures
Kushner became CEO of Kushner Companies in 2008. One of his biggest deals was buying the office building at 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City in 2007 for $1.8 billion. At the time, this was the highest price ever paid for a single building in the U.S.
In 2013, his company bought the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters in Brooklyn for $375 million. They turned it into a large office park. The online store Etsy later signed a 10-year lease to have its offices there.
In 2014, Kushner co-founded a company called Cadre, an online platform for investing in real estate. His partners included his brother, Joshua, and other major investors.
Newspaper Publisher
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In 2006, Kushner bought The New York Observer, a weekly newspaper in New York City, for $10 million. He used money he had earned from his real estate deals in college.
After buying the newspaper, he changed its format and focused on growing its online audience. He hired different editors over the years to run the paper. In 2016, the Observer was one of the few newspapers to support Donald Trump in the Republican primary.
Kushner stepped down as publisher in January 2017 to take his role in the White House.
Work in Politics
For most of his life, Jared Kushner was a registered Democrat. He even donated to Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2008. However, he became an independent voter in 2009 and later registered as a Republican in 2018. He had no experience in politics before joining his father-in-law's campaign.
2016 Presidential Campaign
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Kushner was a key figure in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. He was in charge of the campaign's digital and social media strategy. He created a 100-person team that used online ads to raise over $250 million.
He was seen as the campaign's unofficial manager for a time. He helped with speechwriting and was involved in major decisions, like choosing Mike Pence as the vice-presidential running mate. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Kushner's work on the campaign was the "single best digital ad campaign I’ve ever seen."
Senior Advisor to the President
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On January 9, 2017, Kushner was named Senior Advisor to the President. He resigned from his business roles to avoid conflicts of interest, which is when a person's private interests could influence their public duties.
In the White House, Kushner worked on many different issues. He helped arrange a deal to sell over $100 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia. He also worked on government technology, the economy, and other domestic problems through the Office of American Innovation.
Russia Investigation
During the 2016 campaign and the presidential transition, Kushner had several meetings with Russian officials. These meetings were looked at as part of a larger investigation into whether Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. election.
Kushner said he had four meetings with Russians but that none of them were improper. He spoke to both the House and Senate intelligence committees in private sessions about these contacts. The investigation, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, did not find evidence of wrongdoing by Kushner.
Middle East Peace Efforts
President Trump put Kushner in charge of creating a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. Kushner traveled to the Middle East many times to meet with leaders from both sides.
In 2020, he helped create the Abraham Accords. These were historic agreements that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. For his work, Kushner was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
US–Mexico–Canada Agreement
Kushner played an important role in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He worked with officials from Mexico and Canada to create a new trade deal, which became the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
For his efforts, the president of Mexico awarded Kushner the Order of the Aztec Eagle, which is Mexico's highest honor for a non-citizen.
COVID-19 Pandemic Response
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kushner was a key advisor to President Trump. He created a team of volunteers from the private sector to help find medical supplies like masks and ventilators.
His team's work received mixed reviews. Kushner stated that the national stockpile of supplies was meant for the federal government, not just for the states. He later described the administration's response to the pandemic as "a great success story."
Life After the White House
After leaving his government role in 2021, Kushner started an investment firm called Affinity Partners. The firm received a large investment of $2 billion from Saudi Arabia's public investment fund. This raised questions for some people about whether his past government work influenced the deal.
In August 2022, Kushner published a memoir about his time in the White House called Breaking History: A White House Memoir.
On July 8, 2024, Kushner joined the Village Council of Indian Creek, Florida, a town where he and his family live.
Personal Life
Kushner married Ivanka Trump on October 25, 2009. Ivanka converted to Judaism before their wedding. They are Modern Orthodox Jews and follow Jewish traditions like keeping a kosher home and observing the Shabbat. They have three children: a daughter, Arabella, and two sons, Joseph and Theodore.
In 2017, financial forms suggested that Kushner and his wife had assets worth between $240 million and $740 million.
Kushner revealed in his memoir that he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2019 while working at the White House. He had surgery for it and had a second surgery in 2022.
Images for kids
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In May 2015, Kushner purchased a majority stake of One Times Square for $295 million.
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Japanese PM Shinzō Abe meets with Ivanka, president-elect Donald Trump, and Jared Kushner, November 2016
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Kushner with President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in March 2017
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Dedication ceremony of the Embassy of the United States in Jerusalem, May 2018
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Kushner was a main architect of Trump's Israeli–Palestinian peace plan.
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Honors
| Country | Date | Appointment | Ribbon | Source |
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 United States |
2020 | National Security Medal |  |
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| 2021 | Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service |  |
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 Mexico |
2018 | Sash of the Order of the Aztec Eagle |  |
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 Morocco |
2021 | Grand Cordon of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite | .svg){kind=small} |
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 Hungary |
2022 | Commander's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit | _3class_BAR.svg){kind=small} |
Selected publications
- Kushner, Jared (March 14, 2021). "Opinion | Opportunity Beckons in the Mideast" (in en-US). The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. https://www.wsj.com/articles/opportunity-beckons-in-the-mideast-11615750526.
See also
In Spanish: Jared Kushner para niños
- Kushner family
- Mueller Report
- Links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies
- Special Counsel investigation (2017–present)
- Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
