Jeremy Scahill

It's akin to kind of the Godfather, where Jared Kushner is like the Tom Hagen character, you know, the consigliere.

And

The challenge for the Gulf monarchies is that when they're dealing with Donald Trump, they're not just dealing with the president of the United States, they're also dealing with a corrupt, crooked businessman who continues to make policy based on what he thinks is going to aid his family business and his cronies.

And to have Jared Kushner in a non-Senate confirmed position, not technically an official, they constantly say, oh, Jared's paying his own way to do everything.

You know, this is not public charity.

They're doing this because when Jared Kushner enters the room, whether he's in Qatar or he's in Saudi Arabia or he's dealing with the Emirates or he's in Israel, you know, he's a dual-hatted guy.

He's walking into those rooms with the full force of the backing of the president of the United States.

who also happens to be his father-in-law and whose business interests are completely intertwined with the Trump family.

I mean, he's literally married to Trump's daughter.

And so some of the decision making that's gone on in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and elsewhere has been entirely about just currying favor to the king.

You know, Trump, I think, you know, when he was there visiting the Gulf, he was marveling at sort of the palaces and he made some quips about not having to have elections.

He clearly has a great affinity for the way they roll, you know, the royals.

But I think if you if you look at it in really serious political terms, what are we talking about here?

We're talking about someone who is abusing the office of the presidency of the United States for the personal benefit of himself, his family and his cronies.

And they're treating the entire region as a plantation.

And on this plantation, they have all of these monarchies that are allowed to have their own little fiefdoms.

and they get to buy American weapons and they house American bases.

And in the case of the United Arab Emirates, they quote unquote, normalize relations with Israel.

And part of the equation there, part of the problem for them is that Iran is not part of that program.

And Iran controls a significant aspect of oil and gas in the world, but also it's a stain and a pox on their houses because all of these Gulf countries