Recent Documents Reveal How MBS Is Betting on Trump’s Return to Rule the United States

New documents published by American media showed how investment companies established by influential officials in the administration of former US President Donald Trump obtained billions of dollars from the Saudi government, which sheds light on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's bet on Trump's return to power to restore matters with Washington to their course.

The documents revealed that the Saudi fund provided $2 billion to Affinity Partners, owned by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and first advisor of former US President Donald Trump, 6 months after he left the White House.

Around the same time, the Saudi fund invested $1 billion with former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in his company, Liberty Strategic Capital, although Mnuchin has had a more successful investment record than Kushner.

Observers see that it is clear that Kushner, the owner of the infamous Deal of the Century, and Abraham’s worst godfather, wants to reap the fruits of his services to his friend Prince bin Salman when he was an advisor and the main gateway to President Trump, which involves a lot of political and legal suspicions of misuse of his position and services after his exit from power.

 

Suspicious Friendship

On April 10, 2022, the New York Times published documents showing that the Saudi Crown Prince and the de facto ruler of the Kingdom, Mohammed bin Salman, granted $2 billion to Jared Kushner’s new company, contrasting with the recommendations of his financial advisors who objected to investing in Kushner's company, because he does not have enough experience to manage such an amount.

The previously undisclosed documents are from the minutes of a meeting, dated June 30, 2021, of the Saudi Investment Review Committee that evaluated the Kushner investment proposal.

The Saudi committee consists of: Yasir al-Rumayyan, the head of the committee, who is the head of the Saudi Aramco oil company, Andrew Liveris, the former CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, Ayman al-Sayari, the vice president of the Saudi Central Bank, and Ibrahim al-Mojel, the head of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.

“The minutes of the committee’s meeting showed that 4 members did not support investing in Kushner’s company and considered it a great risk and objected to the benefits of the deal, but Yasir al-Rumayyan decided to refer the committee's decision to bin Salman, who overturned its decisions and allocated $2 billion to Kushner's company,” the newspaper revealed.

Prince bin Salman, according to the newspaper, did not take into account the concerns expressed by the Advisory Committee of the Saudi Investment Fund regarding this deal, and moved ahead with it, which confirms his insistence on supporting Kushner and his company for political and perhaps personal considerations as well, pointing out that it also allowed Kushner to withdraw $ 500 million of the $2 billion even before the presence of a qualified investment team and specialists within the company.

“Kushner's company, in its latest public files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated March 31, reveals that its main fund manages $ 2.5 billion from investors residing abroad, suggesting that Saudi Arabia will be the only investor in it,” the newspaper indicated.

Kushner and his partners are expected to receive $25 million in management fees annually, in addition to a share of any profits made by his company, according to the New York Times.

Documents obtained by the newspaper reveal that the Saudi Investment Fund will obtain, in return for its investment, a share of at least 28 percent in Kushner's main investment vehicle.

However, the newspaper revealed that “Kushner has little experience in investing, as before entering the White House he ran his family's real estate business, with disappointing results at times.”

Kushner's best deal was to buy the 666 Fifth Avenue office tower in Manhattan in 2007 for $1.8 billion, but the deal became a crisis after the recession that hit the economy the following year.

The newspaper also referred to the special relations and the informal alliance that Kushner built with the Saudi crown prince and his push to open of diplomatic relations between the Arab countries and Israel, and his contribute to negotiating Abraham's agreements that led to the normalization of Gulf states with the Zionist entity.

After Kushner left the White House, he established a non-profit foundation to strengthen relations between these countries, economically and otherwise.

The Saudi Investment Fund, which is worth $620 billion, always puts profit considerations at the top of its investment policies, and this was reflected in its purchase of shares in the global company Uber, the English club Newcastle, and the examples are many; but it seems that political considerations play a role in making deals as well, and sometimes determine which companies and countries to invest in, which is not unusual in the world of politics.

Robert Wiseman, president of the nonprofit group Public Citizen, paused on this issue when he described Kushner's relationship with Saudi Arabia as deeply troubling, because his position toward leading the kingdom by virtue of his previous job as senior advisor to his father-in-law, which makes this business partnership as a reward for Kushner.

In turn, the American writer Keith Boykin commented in a tweet on his Twitter account on the New York Times report by saying: “October 2018: Jamal Khashoggi killed at the Saudi consulate. November 2018: CIA concludes bin Salman approved the killing. December 2018: Jared Kushner defends the Saudis. In 2021: Saudi Arabia gives Kushner $2 billion.”

The New York Times quoted ethics experts as saying that such a Saudi investment deal comes as part of repaying Kushner's work in the White House, or a bid for a future favor if Trump seeks to run and wins another term in 2024.

On the other hand, observers believe that there are many deep ties and personal similarities between the two friends bin Salman and Kushner, as both of them were born into an influential and wealthy family, their ages are in their thirties, each of them studied in the best schools and universities, each of them helped the father manage the burdens Power and wealth, and each manipulated by power and glory at an early age.

The two benefit from this friendship, each according to its purpose, as American decisions come in favor of Riyadh at the instigation of Kushner, then the Saudi money travels to Kushner’s accounts through tax havens as a matter of gratitude and thanks, according to observers.

 

Abuse of Power

In this regard, the Washington Post indicated in a report published on April 14 that Saudi support for Kushner raised alarms of apparent corruption between bin Salman and Kushner, noting that the repercussions of this would affect the American political scene and the relation between Washington and Riyadh.

Especially as it comes in light of the tense relations between the Saudi Crown Prince and the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden, and the lack of trust between the two sides, after Bin Salman refused a request from Biden to increase oil production to reduce prices, his adherence to the OPEC+ agreement he held with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his failure to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and his openness with China.

It is noteworthy that Kushner had established close personal relations with bin Salman, and they communicated with each other outside official government channels, using WhatsApp, so that their relation with each other raised the alarm among US national security personnel.

During his four years in the White House, Kushner also played the role of special counsel in defending and advising the Crown Prince, after US intelligence agencies concluded that he approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to the newspaper.

“Kushner also played a large role in brokering a $110 billion sale of US arms to Saudi Arabia over 10 years, helping to shield those and other arms deals from the wrath of Congress and the United Nations over the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen,” it added.

“The above seems to explain the financial support from the Saudi crown prince to Kushner, as a reward for his efforts,” the newspaper said.

“The reward creates an additional impression, that what bin Salman is really investing in is not a commercial project, but rather that he is betting on the political future of the Trump family, that is, a possible return to the White House of former President Trump if he runs again and wins the 2024 presidential elections,” the Washington Post added.

“It is certain that what Kushner did with Saudi Arabia, asking for funding for his own company, is similar in its kind to the influence operations in Ukraine and China, practiced by Hunter, the son of President Biden,” it said.

The newspaper concluded by saying: “We look forward, impatiently, to the Republicans’ anger at the relation between Saudis and Kushner, as they did at least when they criticized Hunter Biden. The Biden administration and Congress should carefully consider these suspicious transactions to protect the American political scene from foreign influence, especially dictators with blood on their hands.”

It is noteworthy that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had bragged to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and others that US President Donald Trump's adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner was in his pocket, according to a report published in The Intercept on March 21, 2018.

The aforementioned report came just weeks after Kushner's security clearance was revoked from the White House to access top-secret US intelligence.

Citing sources close to the Saudi and Emirati royals, The Intercept said that Kushner provided the heir to the Saudi throne with details of disloyal Saudi businessmen and princes during a private visit he made to Riyadh in October 2017.

In November 2017, the Crown Prince ordered the arrest of dozens of Saudi princes, businessmen and other senior officials at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on charges of corruption, but some of them were later released after paying huge sums.