Some Republicans are worried that Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is proving to be a political albatross for the GOP heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, served as advisers to the president during his first term. Both declined to rejoin the administration for Trump’s inauguration last year, though Kushner did serve as an unofficial diplomatic intermediary in 2025 and was tapped by Trump this year to serve alongside Steve Witkoff as special envoys for peace missions.
The pair leads Trump’s diplomatic negotiations to end conflicts overseas. Some of those efforts have been fruitful. Kushner, in particular, is credited with helping secure the Abraham Accords during Trump’s first term and adding additional signatory countries during the second. Others, like the wars in Ukraine, Iran, and Gaza, have stalled in recent months.
Kushner is a successful businessman in his own right, and Trump critics have frequently accused him, alongside the president, of conflicts of interest while carrying out U.S. policy. The White House routinely discounts those critiques, but recent reporting on deals linked to Kushner has some GOP figures questioning whether MAGA’s typical hand-waving regarding the Trump family’s business empire will work this cycle.
Last week, CNN reported that Affinity Partners, the private equity firm that Kushner founded in between Trump’s first and second terms, is the largest shareholder in an Israeli company allegedly profiting off the country’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. Days later, the New York Times mapped Kushner’s business ties to a not-yet-finalized deal to sell off assets owned by Lukoil, a Russian energy company sanctioned by the United States. The oil deal has become a central piece of Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Kushner in a statement pushed back on CNN’s “deeply misleading” report, noting that Phoenix Financial, the Israeli company identified as Affinity’s investment, is “not a defense company” and the “Israeli equivalent of Vanguard or Fidelity,” two of the largest American asset managers.
But a congressional investigation could await Kushner in the new year.
Two Democrats, both of whom are popular among the base and would lead the main investigative committees if the party reclaims the majority, have made a potential investigation of Kushner central to their midterm messages.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Judiciary Committee Democrat, demanded that Kushner specifically document how his government job intersects with Affinity Partners’s investments. And on Monday, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, alerted Affinity Partners that the committee was “investigating the unprecedented and dangerous way in which President Trump and his family have profited directly from their access to power.”
Raskin and Garcia are mainstays on MS Now, where they’ve additionally made clear to the left-wing audience they intend to probe the Trump family and Kushner if they’re elevated to chair their committees.
Garcia recently wrote an op-ed for MS Now making the case that Kushner’s business affairs are contributing to affordability issues nationwide. “Kushner … has raised billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia while conducting sensitive negotiations abroad. All the while, the top 1% of people in this country own as much as the bottom 90%,” Garcia wrote.
The White House, however, shook off criticism of Kushner’s business dealings in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Jared Kushner’s personal business activities have nothing to do with his diplomatic engagements, which he conducts on a volunteer basis at the President’s request. Jared is a proven dealmaker with a track record of success on some of the biggest deals in history,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales wrote. “The media’s misleading stories and biased coverage does not deter Jared — or the rest of President Trump’s team — from fighting every day to advance America’s interests.”
A White House official also confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Kushner and Witkoff are working alongside the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to negotiate the Lukoil deal, which includes “a substantial upfront payment and profits interest for the United States.”
That person denied that the deal will personally enrich either man, adding that “the only deals they are doing are on behalf of the United States of America.”
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Still, according to a veteran Trump campaign aide, Kushner is making it harder for Republicans on the campaign trail. That person steadfastly defended Kushner against common allegations that the Trump family is using U.S. policies to enrich itself but conceded that the “optics aren’t great.”
“Look, there’s a reason Jared’s back [for the second term]. He’s proven he can get the job done, and, I think more importantly, he’s someone that President Trump trusts unconditionally. The fact that Democrats always go back to the well — go after this family because of the business they built before the president ever entered office — is just lazy,” that source told the Washington Examiner. “But this stuff matters to voters, especially considering how much Iran is casting a shadow right now. There’s no reason [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio] can’t be the point person on negotiations. It’s kind of just an unforced error.”