Trump may tap son-in-law Jared Kushner for Secretary of State in a second term: report

Former President Donald Trump could tap his son-in-law Jared Kushner as Secretary of State if he wins another term, reported Vanity Fair on Wednesday.

"According to two sources, prominent Republicans are speculating that Kushner is in the running to take charge at Foggy Bottom if Trump wins in November," reported Gabriel Sherman. "One source briefed on the conversations said Republican senators have privately asked Kushner to head up the agency." Sources also said that Kushner, who walked away from politics to work in investment, will take until late summer to make his decision.

Kushner served in a White House advisory role in the previous Trump term. While he was not formally a diplomat, Trump frequently tapped him for foreign policy projects, and he was involved in the negotiation of deals between Israel and Arab states known as the Abraham Accords.

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"If Trump were to nominate Kushner to be his secretary of state, it would present risks and opportunities for the administration, not to mention the country," said the report. "Kushner’s financial relationships in the Middle East — especially with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which committed $2 billion to his private equity firm — would raise a host of ethical issues and surely be probed by Congress during a confirmation hearing. At the same time, many senators might prefer Kushner to MAGA hard-liners like General Mike Flynn or Richard Grenell, who could stoke Trump’s impulses to blow up America’s long-standing alliances like NATO. 'It would show Trump is not purely on a revenge tour,' one of the sources said."

Kushner's investment deals with foreign countries have often raised red flags from political observers as a potential point of corruption.

The former president's plans for a second term generally have triggered alarms, particularly his pledges to be a "dictator on day one" on certain policy issues and his allies' plans to strip independence from the civil service.