Today I wanted to mention a slightly different thought about why Trump and Kushner were dangerous for America. It has to do with the dangers of being too rich before going into office: Reed Galen of the Lincoln Project asked me about this. And I hope you will listen.

I wasn’t feeling great when I did this last week, having just broken my shoulder, falling on the ski slopes. (Yes, I am a terrible skier and I will not be missed on the mountain). Normally, for something like this, when I don’t know the subject ahead of time, I get anxious as to whether or not I’m completely up to speed on all the different current events in the world. I read as much as I can every day but even so, you can miss things, especially when you are working on a deep dive, which I have been these past months – and will be a little while yet. (I’ll tell you about that when I’m able).

The issue with real estate is that it’s an industry with very few rules and regulations. Unlike Wall Street firms which tend to have strong cultures, most developers just do whatever they want. It’s a ruthless world where one person’s victory is another’s loss, and where people lie frequently in order to re-trade a deal at a more favorable price or just to win. There’s a reason the annual industry party in New York, after which I named my book, is called by its own attendees “The Liars’ Ball.”

This was the culture that both Trump and Kushner grew up in and imported to Washington, DC. I reported in my 2019 book, Kushner, Inc., how when one prominent Middle Eastern financier, the former Qatari Prime Minister “HBJ” visited Trump in Mar-a-Lago early on in the Administration, he remarked afterwards he’d found our leaders “open for business….”

Read the rest at Vicky Ward Investigates.