Kushners received millions in funds from real estate holdings and book deal while working as aides to president

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made as much as $135m last year while working as aides to Donald Trump, financial disclosures released by the White House have revealed.

Ms Trump's stake in her family's Washington DC hotel made her $3.95m. Down the street from the Oval Office, it is currently at the centre of two federal lawsuits claiming Trump is violating the constitution’s ban on foreign government payments to the president.

A personal business selling handbags, shoes and accessories, generated at least $1m in revenue for Ms Trump in 2018.

The US president's daughter was also given a $263,500 book advance for Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success, which was published in 2017 and which a New York Times review called “witlessly derivative”.

Her husband Jared Kushner took in hundreds of thousands of dollars from his holdings of New York City apartments. He also owns a stake in the real estate investment firm, Cadre, worth at least $25m.

  

Ivanka Trump's house

 

The historic Puck Building in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan, owned by the Kushner family, generated as much as $6m in rent. A former warehouse-turned-luxury-apartment building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn brought in more than $350,000 in rent.

Former and current tenants in the building filed a lawsuit against Kushner Companies, alleging it used noisy, dusty construction to make living conditions unbearable in an effort to push them out so their apartments could be sold. The company has said the suit is without merit.

Cadre has also drawn conflict-of-interest questions. It launched a fund to take advantage of large tax breaks by investing in downtrodden areas. It has also  received $90m in foreign funding from an opaque offshore vehicle since Mr. Kushner entered the White House. The disclosures were released by the White House and filed with the US Office of Government Ethics.

Last month John Kelly, the president’s former chief of staff, said the President’s family was an “influence” that frequently needed to be “dealt with”. Mr Kelly said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's, The David Rubenstein Show, that he had been forced to remove some “very disruptive” officials “to staff a president the way I think a president should be staffed”.
He also said he was taken aback by the “intense personal ambition” some staffers displayed. He was referring to some staffers in high positions, including the Kushners.

It seems the Kushners have taken advantage of their connection to the office of the presidency to line their own pockets. Does anyone see something wrong with that? Does anyone see something wrong with the fact that they hold such important positions at the White House without any training or diplomatic experience or without going through the usual procedures and vetting for security clearance?