Affinity Partners has more than $5 billion in assets under management, according to Trump’s Board of Peace; Democrats allege a conflict of interest.
Kushner, accompanied by presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, met Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev on a Moscow tarmac over the weekend as part of the Trump administration’s continued push to end the Russia-Ukraine war, The Wall Street Journal reported. A Russian negotiator posted a photograph of Kushner in Moscow, according to The Wall Street Journal. The image showed Kushner standing on Russian tarmac in dark slacks and white Nikes opposite Dmitriev, with a U.S. government plane visible in the background. Paletta described Dmitriev as straddling “a world between politics and government.” The trip also included talks in Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The two envoys left their talks in Ukraine on a train whose onboard display read “Peace Express,” Paletta reported. “Both had big smiles on their faces,” Paletta wrote.
Democrats have alleged a conflict of interest in Kushner’s diplomatic work, citing his business ties, the Journal reported. According to Trump’s Board of Peace, on which Kushner serves as an executive board member, Affinity Partners — the private investment firm Kushner continues to lead as chief executive — has more than $5 billion in assets under management, Paletta reported. The fund’s initial investors included capital from the Middle East.
Kushner, one of Trump’s sons-in-law, first became involved in foreign policy during Trump’s first term beginning in 2017 despite limited prior experience in international affairs, the Journal reported. After Trump left office in 2021, Kushner launched Affinity Partners.
The Moscow leg followed a recent visit by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, which Paletta reported was viewed by some as an acknowledgment that the Kushner-Witkoff outreach “had sputtered.” The two envoys “have been trying to find off-ramps for this war for some time, with little to show for it,” Paletta wrote.
Speaking alongside Witkoff and Zelensky over the weekend, Kushner cast the negotiations in business terms borrowed from his father-in-law’s career. “You know President Trump comes from the business world,” Kushner said, according to the Journal. “In the business world, you think about things in the context of win-win. You know, how do you create opportunities for both sides to do what’s in their interests? War is a negative sum, you know everyone loses from war, whereas you know business and peace is positive sum. You can find big benefits from that in a big way.”
Kushner recently met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Paletta reported. In public, Kushner projects a demeanor Paletta described as a “good cop,” “with bright smiles and careful nods.” Paletta wrote that Kushner “hasn’t been slowed” and “appears more influential than ever.”