Donald Trump’s (so-far) successful plan to end the conflict in Gaza was orchestrated by Jared Kushner in a bid to make himself richer, according to Trump biographer Michael Wolff.
Speaking on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast, Wolff outlined how Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, played Qatar and the president in order to further his own business interests.
“[Jared] craves influence in the Middle East. He craves business opportunities in the Middle East. He craves further, deeper relationships with the powerful people in the Middle East, all of which is helped by peace. So peace becomes a byproduct of business,” said Wolff.
Kushner, 44, founded the private equity firm Affinity Partners in 2021, after the first Trump administration. Affinity Partners has substantial investments from several Middle Eastern countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Affinity Partners invests in American and Israeli companies in the Middle East with the goal of expanding in the territory.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Jared Kushner for comment. On Oct. 1, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed claims of impropriety related to Kushner’s peace negotiations and his business interests in the Middle East.
“I think it’s frankly despicable that you’re trying to suggest that it’s inappropriate for Jared Kushner, who is widely respected around the world and has great trust and relationships with these critical partners in these countries, to strike a twenty-point comprehensive detailed peace plan that no other administration would ever be able to achieve,” she told a reporter asking about Kushner.
Kushner, the husband of Ivanka Trump, is technically not a part of the Trump administration but acts as an unpaid, informal adviser, particularly when it comes to the Middle East.
Wolff believes Kushner, along with real estate developer and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, pressed their business connections with Middle Eastern royal families to broker the Israel and Hamas deal. On Friday, The New York Times reported on the extent of the pair’s involvement, which earned bipartisan praise.
“The Qataris basically say… we will come down hard on Hamas,” outlined Wolff. “And remember, Israel attacked the Hamas negotiators, essentially the top Hamas leadership in Qatar. So they were completely freaked out about this. And I think they realized, this is not in our interest.
“So it’s essentially, ‘we will come down hard on Hamas,’ they say to Donald Trump’s son-in-law, ‘if the President of the United States will come down hard on [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu.’”
Until just recently, Trump, 79, wasn’t addressing Israel’s brutalities in the conflict, which have killed over 67,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. That was the case until Trump implied that if Netanyahu didn’t sign on to his peace plan, the U.S. would stop supporting Israel in the war, according to a White House adviser.
“Essentially Bibi has had a free rein to continue this awful carnage with Trump at best looking the other way. Suddenly though, he comes down hard on Bibi,” said Wolff.
The reason for Trump’s sudden change in tune, according to Wolff, was the imminent announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize. Wolff believes Jared got Trump to turn on Netanyahu by telling the president that if he brokered a peace deal in the conflict, he would be a top candidate for the honor.
“And [Trump] comes down hard on Bibi, not least of all because Jared is good at this. He knows how to play his father-in-law. He comes down hard on Bibi in this 11th hour bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize,” said Wolff.
“How can he get the Nobel Peace Prize? Well, by bringing peace to the Middle East, by solving the Gaza situation. Now, of course, he could have done that any time since last January when he became the President of the United States. But he does it now because for a very specific goal.”
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Venezuelan democracy advocate María Corina Machado on Friday, to MAGA’s chagrin. However, nominations for the Prize are closed in January, meaning Trump’s best chance at winning a Nobel Prize off brokering peace between Israel and Hamas will come next year.
Wolff argued that the deal might not actually support Trump’s case for the prize as much as it does Kushner’s.
“[Trump] might win,” he said, “then again, he might go through the humiliation of watching his son-in-law and his former golfing buddy, Witkoff, pick it up next year.”
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