Albert R. Hunt, Columnist

The Swamp Is Rooting for Kushner

The family guy looks like a winner in the White House civil war. Plus, who wants to be deconstructed?

April 12, 2017 at 5:10 PM UTC

Albert R. Hunt is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

In happier times.
Photographer: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images

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Jared Kushner has only been in Washington for several months, but he's already benefiting from a law of bureaucratic nature: The right rivals make you look good.

In a White House awash in internecine warfare, the most prominent combatant is Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, who has been given a wide-ranging portfolio. Kushner's chief adversary is Steve Bannon, the nationalist champion of the alt-right who says he wants to deconstruct the administrative state. Not surprisingly, the capital establishment, not eager to be deconstructed, despises Bannon and thus puts its hopes on the 36-year-old Kushner.