Officials say Kushner taking unprecedented role to interfere in foreign policy matters
White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner is
leading an unprecedented effort to meddle in the White House's National Security Council, causing mayhem for senior staff who say the president's son-in-law is interfering in key foreign policy debates, according to Trump administration officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.
Kushner has taken aggressive action to micro-manage the NSC, overshadowing even recently installed National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, according to sources both inside and outside the White House who described
Kushner's behavior as highly unusual and damaging to the country's national security infrastructure.
Never before has a White House permitted such a figure to intervene in the NSC, which is traditionally given leeway to investigate foreign policy matters and bring advice to the president.
Sources who spoke to the Free Beacon described
wide-ranging frustration at the NSC over Kushner's influence over some of the most important foreign policy portfolios,
such as Iraq, Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and China, among others.
"Jared has been pegged as
the ‘shadow secretary of state,'" said the White House official. "But in a way he's kind of also
the shadow national security adviser and secretary of defense."
The situation has weakened the NSC and caused internal confusion as to what exactly the administration's policy is when it comes to a range of key issues.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/new-front-in-white-house-civil-war-as-kushner-asserts-authority-at-nsc/