Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion Save us all from Jared Kushner

Associate editor and columnist|
May 6, 2020 at 9:19 a.m. EDT
Dan Scavino Jr., left, White House director of social media, and Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser, walk outside the White House on Sunday in Washington. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Whenever a member of the Trump family gets involved with a project, it is always smart to keep an eye out for the grift.

We might have hoped that a pandemic that has already cost more than 70,000 Americans their lives would be an exception to this rule. But no. President Trump’s decision to again put his unqualified son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in charge of a team charged with a vital national security interest — this time, procuring crucial supplies and protective equipment for hospitals and others on the front lines of fighting the coronavirus — is producing the usual results: incompetence and cronyism.