On Monday, the White House plans to announce the launch of the Office of American Innovation. According to CNN, this new organization will be led by Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. As Kushner steps into a more high-profile role, people will likely be interested in knowing more details about his professional history, including his net worth.
Kushner may have married into a prominent business family, but he also comes from one himself. According to a December 2016 article in Forbes, Kushner, his parents, Charles and Seryl, and his brother Josh, have collectively made a substantial amount of income from property investments, which is, ironically, a characteristic that the Kushners share with the Trumps. Forbes estimated the Kushner family's net worth to be at least $1.8 billion, with over half of their fortune held in real estate.
According to a November 2016 article on Mic, Kushner also has a significantly high standalone net worth, which is reportedly at least $200 million. The same article reported that Kushner has, like his family, played a prominent role in the New York real estate market, having spent $7 billion on New York City real estate in the past 10 years. Indeed, Kushner made history by negotiating the purchase of a Manhattan skyscraper for $1.8 billion in 2006, when he was 26 years old. At the time, the sale marked the highest real estate price ever paid for a single building in the United States.
In addition to the real estate market, Kushner has also made waves in the publishing world after purchasing the New York Observer for $10 million in 2006, as The New York Times reported. Under Kushner's purview, the Observer became profitable in 2011 for the first time in its 24-year history.
Knowledge of Kushner's business history and financial interactions is more important than ever, now that Kushner will play a higher profile role in his father-in-law's administration as leader of the Office of American Innovation. Democrats have already raised questions about Kushner's potential conflicts of interest in his role as a senior adviser to the President, due to a potential deal between Kushner's family real estate business. Kushner Companies, of which Jared Kushner previously served as the CEO, was in talks with Chinese firm Anbang Insurance Group for a deal Bloomberg claims could be worth more than $400 million.
While Kushner stepped down as CEO of Kushner Companies in order to serve as the President's senior adviser, Democratic lawmakers still maintain that the situation could present a conflict of interest and last week sent letters to the Treasury Secretary and Office of the White House Counsel regarding the matter, as The Hill reported. It is certainly possible that Kushner's enhanced White House role will subject him to even more thorough evaluation, particularly from Democrats.
Kushner comes from a family with a large-scale and complex national and international real estate business, which, while rendering him successful as a private citizen, will likely cause him to face more more scrutiny as a government official.
