According to a Saturday report from Newsweek , White House adviser Jared Kushner has increased his influence over President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
Kushner has long been an influential voice in the White House, but the ousting of 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale appears to have given the commander-in-chief’s son-in-law more room to maneuver.
Parscale was reportedly on good terms with Trump until the rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event was advertised as a major comeback meant to kick off the re-election push but failed to meet expectations. Parscale was then demoted and replaced by Bill Stepien, an experienced Republican operative and longtime ally of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
A senior administration official explained that Kushner’s influence has increased to the point that he now oversees daily meetings between his father-in-law and his advisers.
As the publication noted, the agenda is to “get Trump focused on the campaign and what he needs to do to revive it.”
Amid the devastating coronavirus pandemic, that may be a daunting task. Unable to hold rallies and similar events, Trump has been forced to adapt to the situation.
According to Steve Bannon — who worked on the 2016 bid — Trump needs to be perceived as an effective leader if he wants to win in November.
“It’s not so much about a campaign. People want to see he’s on top of what you’re doing in the Oval Office. It’s about action, action, action,” Bannon said.
Kushner purportedly agrees with Bannon. According to a source, Kushner was “cautiously optimistic” about the coronavirus situation in June, but he appears to have changed his mind.
Apart from helping his father-in-law get re-elected, Kushner is also involved in the administration’s response to the pandemic. He has reportedly been holding conversations with governors who need the federal government’s help.
Kushner has also changed his mind about Trump’s re-election prospects, Newsweek noted.
“As recently as a month ago, Kushner was optimistic about the campaign, saying there was ‘an eternity of time’ and dismissing polls showing the president trailing as ‘b.s.’ Now, aides acknowledge, things have changed. Team Trump knows it has a problem. The challenge now is figuring out a fix — and getting the president to go along with it.”
As The Inquisitr reported earlier this month, some people close to the commander-in-chief are allegedly becoming more and more nervous about the November election.
Polling suggests that the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee Joe Biden is far ahead. The latest Quinnipiac University survey, for instance, gave the Democrat a 15-point nationwide advantage.
