Trumpanzee, Just Before The Ax Falls: "Jared Is Doing A Great Job For The Country; I Have Total Confidence In Him"

On Monday morning Raw Story's Brad Reed listed 5 reasons why anonymous White House officials say they can't stand Kushner-in-law. It helps explain the flood of leaks about him from inside the Trump Regime-- though the list sort of inexplicably belies the animus from the Bannon camp... which will stop at nothing short of Kushner's head on a platter.

• He whines a lot
• He regularly skips town when bad news hits
• His family is using his connections with Trump to hawk visas to Chinese investors
• Trump gives Kushner a lot of jobs-- and he takes no responsibility for doing them
• He’s seen as untouchable

Sunday night the NY Times' ace White House reporters Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman were asserting that the fates are testing Kushner-- and using Putin-Gate to do it. They noted that "Bannon, a onetime Kushner ally turned adversary known for working himself into ill health, has taken to comparing the former real estate executive to 'the air,' because he blows in and out of meetings leaving little trace, according to one senior Trump aide... Kushner’s war with Mr. Bannon has been a damaging distraction. Several upper-level staff members said Mr. Kushner has made it plain to them that they needed to choose sides or be iced out from an increasingly influential team that includes Gary D. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, and a handful of other Kushner-allied power brokers like Dina Powell, a national security official. Mr. Kushner remains infuriated by what he believes to be leaks about his team by Mr. Bannon, who has privately cautioned Mr. Trump against being 'captured' by liberal, New York 'globalists' associated with his son-in-law, according to three people close to the president. Mr. Trump, however, has had enough. He recently chided Mr. Kushner for continuing to call for Mr. Bannon’s ouster, saying he would not fire his conservative populist adviser-- who has deep connections with Mr. Trump’s white, working-class base--simply because Mr. Kushner wanted him out, according an administration official."

Is Kushner's "pair of adjoining offices a few penny-loafer paces from his father-in-law’s desk in the White House" in jeopardy? "Over the past week," they wrote, "Mr. Kushner, who at age 36 occupies an ill-defined role somewhere between princeling and President Trump’s shadow chief of staff, has seen his foothold on that invaluable real estate shrink amid revelations he is under scrutiny in a federal investigation into whether there was collusion with Russian officials during the presidential campaign." What they suggest we all wonder about is how "Kushner's woes will affect his hard-won influence on a mercurial father-in-law who is eager to put distance between himself and a scandal that is swamping his agenda and, he believes, threatening his family." They report the relationship between King Alfred and Æthelred Señor Trumpanzee and Kushner-in-law "is showing unmistakable signs of strain," despite Trump's Mafia-like professions of "total confidence," the exact same phrase many people recall him saying hours before he fired Flynn.

That relationship had already begun to fray a bit after Mr. Trump’s dismissal of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, which Mr. Kushner had strongly advocated, and because of his repeated attempts to oust Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, as well as the president’s overburdened communications team, especially Sean Spicer, the press secretary.

It has been duly noted in the White House that Mr. Trump, who feels that he has been ill served by his staff, has increasingly included Mr. Kushner when he dresses down aides and officials, a rarity earlier in his administration and during the campaign.

The most serious point of contention between the president and his son-in-law, two people familiar with the interactions said, was a video clip this month of Mr. Kushner’s sister Nicole Meyer pitching potential investors in Beijing on a Kushner Companies condominium project in Jersey City. At one point, Ms. Meyer-- who remains close to Mr. Kushner-- dangled the availability of EB-5 visas to the United States as an enticement for Chinese financiers willing to spend $500,000 or more.

For Mr. Trump, Ms. Meyer’s performance violated two major rules: Politically, it undercut his immigration crackdown, and in a personal sense, it smacked of profiteering off Mr. Trump-- one of the sins that warrants expulsion from his orbit.

In the following days during routine West Wing meetings, the president made several snarky, disparaging comments about Mr. Kushner’s family and the visas that were clearly intended to express his annoyance, two aides said. Mr. Kushner did not respond, at least not in earshot.

...[T]he Russia investigation has shaken Mr. Kushner, friends and associates say. When news broke last week, Mr. Kushner and his wife at first discussed getting a statement denying the report issued through the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II-- who told them that it was not a good precedent to set and that it was a job for a personal attorney.

While Mr. Kushner has said he and his wife might move back to Manhattan if it were best for their family, he appears, for now, willing to stay and fight.

As The Times was running with its assessment, Politico was making the point that Trumpanzee is now obsessed with Putin-Gate. Their point is that Trumpanzee and Bannon "are becoming increasingly convinced that they are victims of a conspiracy against Trump's presidency, as evidenced by the number of leaks flowing out of government-- that the crusade by the so-called 'deep state' is a legitimate threat, not just fodder for right wing defenders... And they've become more rattled by the idea that they don't know where the scandals are headed and who may be ensnared next."

On his "big foreign trip," as he called it, Trump repeatedly talked about Russia and the ongoing investigation, according to an ally close to the White House. Shortly after he returned, he seemed agitated about negative press about him.

“It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Whenever you see the words 'sources say' in the fake news media, and they don't mention names...it is very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!”

Aside from bringing in additional aides to handle the Russia probe, the president's senior aides say that his strategy for confronting the crises-- or for pushing a stalled legislative agenda-- remains unclear.

Senior aides and long-time confidants admitted not knowing who Trump would hire, how safe the jobs of top staff are, what the White House's agenda is for the coming days, or what-- if anything-- they can accomplish.

“We are letting others dictate entirely how we are perceived," one White House official said. “The calendar changes every day. There is no rhyme or reason to a lot of it.”

Chief of staff Reince Priebus’s future remains uncertain, as it has been for several months. Shake-ups in Trump’s world can be slow to materialize or never happen, but White House senior aides regularly criticize Priebus in conversations with reporters.

Some allies and aides say Jared Kushner, a top adviser who is under scrutiny for his business ties and communications with Russian officials, is also on shaky ground, even though Trump is unlikely to let his own son-in-law go.