The First Family: Asset or Liability for the President?

||| Ball State Daily |||

Are Trump’s family members increasingly becoming a liability to him or are they being unfairly targeted because of their closeness to the President?

For one, presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded. Trump’s critics are quick to cast doubts that with such development, Kushner will be in a diminished position to handle his broad portfolio. It also gave angry Democrats a fresh opening to call for Kushner’s removal from the White House.

Losing his top-level security clearance would block Kushner from accessing sensitive intelligence related to China, Mexico and the Middle East- all the areas the President especially tapped him to oversee.

Kushner’s wife and the acknowledged closest child to Trump, Ivanka, continues to be targeted without let-up by Trump’s critics and haters. She came under fire anew from those who despise her for refusing to answer an NBC reporter this week about allegations against her father of sexual misconduct. Some stressed that as a Special Advisor to the POTUS, she should know she if fair game for such questions.

Then there’s also Trump Jr. who drew flak as well from critics for his recent trip to India saying he is again blurring the lines between his family’s business and his father’s foreign policy agenda.

Trump Jr. was originally scheduled to deliver an address at a business conference titled “Reshaping Indo-Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation.” But it had to be changed as critics might use the speech to draw attention to their accusation of conflict of interest where Trump Jr. is concerned.

Kushner’s woes- real or perceived- come at the same time when Trump lost his most loyal and trusted aide, Hope Hicks, at a crucial juncture in his presidency. Hicks resigned from the White House.

With a trusted aide gone, there are also some say the President will need his family’s presence more around him whose loyalty and dedication he can count on.

There are those who believe that Trump’s allies would continue to regard Kushner and his position with disdain, but that because he is the President’s “favorite”, they won’t be able to touch him. Some political observers say some allies are thinking it is just up to Kushner how much more humiliation he can take by staying on the job.

In the end, regardless of what both foes and allies say, only President Trump can know, and decide at the end of the day, whether his close family keeping high profile presence in his administration is an asset or a miscalculation on his judgment.

Source:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376283-trumps-family-becomes-flashpoint-for-new-controversies