President-elect Donald Trump is once again turning to extended family to fill positions in his incoming administration, tapping the fathers-in-law of two of his children to serve in high-profile diplomatic roles.
The move has sparked questions from critics who say Mr. Trump is prioritizing personal loyalty over experience.
The president-elect announced that he will nominate Charles Kushner, the father of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for U.S. ambassador to France. He followed up that nomination by announcing that he would appoint Massad Boulos, the father-in-law of his daughter, Tiffany Trump, to be the senior adviser to the president on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
Mr. Boulos, a billionaire businessman, was heavily involved in the campaign for Mr. Trump by reaching out to Muslim Americans in battleground states. Mr. Kushner has a more infamous background. He was pardoned by Mr. Trump in 2020 after being convicted in 2005 on 18 federal charges, including tax evasion and witness tampering, and served time in prison.
In a social media post, the president-elect called Mr. Kushner a “tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests.”
He called Mr. Boulos “a highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the International scene.”
Presidents often reward political allies with diplomatic postings in desirable locales such as Paris. Typically, nearly 40% of ambassadorships are handed out to major campaign donors. President Biden appointed at least 55 ambassadors who contributed more than $22.5 million to Democratic candidates, according to the Campaign Legal Center.
Some analysts say appointing relatives to administration posts raises questions of competence and nepotism.
Michael Genovese, professor of political science and president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University, said family nominations are “not common.”
“There is a presumption that you should avoid nepotism. That nepotism sends a very bad signal about who you are, how you are as a manager, and who you reward,” he said.
Mr. Genovese said most presidents go out of their way to avoid going the nepotism route, but he cited exceptions such as President John F. Kennedy nominating his brother, Robert Kennedy, for attorney general, and President Bill Clinton assigning his wife, Hillary Clinton, as the chair of the Health Care Reform Initiative.
Mr. Genovese said that the nepotism appointments should be limited and that there should be more that goes into the choices than loyalty, like competence and trust.
“What Donald Trump is doing is he’s putting people in office who don’t have the experience, who also have some shady backgrounds, like Kushner’s father, for example, where you wonder, what did he do? Why would you put him in there? How is he going to help?” he said. “He’s going to be a distraction. He’s going to be maybe a lightning rod for criticism that might help Trump. But it still raises so many questions about things you could avoid if you wanted to avoid them. Donald Trump doesn’t worry about that stuff.”
Charles Kushner, a real estate developer, was sentenced to two years in prison in 2005 after he pleaded guilty to charges involving retaliation against his brother-in-law for cooperating with federal investigators. The criminal case was prosecuted by Chris Christie, who was then U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Mr. Christie, who later became governor of New Jersey and then ran against Mr. Trump in the 2016 and 2024 GOP presidential primaries, has become a frequent critic of the president-elect.
Meena Bose, director of the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University, said in-laws of a president’s children are not mentioned in a 1967 anti-nepotism law.
She said family serving in the White House could be tricky since it could be “complicated for a president’s advisers to contradict family members.” But she thinks that might not be an issue because the two positions given to the in-laws are not ones that put them in the White House often.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump had prominent roles as advisers in the first Trump White House. Both said they don’t intend to serve in the new Trump administration.
Ms. Bose says it seems like besides loyalty, Mr. Trump has chosen nominees — family or not — who have been active on television or he feels have been treated unfairly in politics or legally. And, while the jobs given to Mr. Kushner and Mr. Boulos are important, they aren’t “necessarily based on extended diplomacy, [but] kind of visibility in politics or working on a campaign.”
Ms. Bose said that the way the family is perceived in the administration will depend on how well they do in their roles.
“When we look at the question of family members and appointments, the real kind of question will be, how do they fare in office, and that will be a determining factor in how Trump’s appointments are viewed,” she said.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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