Kushner refuses to give tenants rent relief during pandemic, asks own creditors for forgiveness
The admonition to “do as I say, not as I do” is the very definition of hypocrisy and to the surprise of absolutely no one, it may as well be the motto of Donald Trump and his extended family.
That is a logical conclusion one can draw from the news that The Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold told MSNBC’s Joy Reid this morning in an appearance on her AM Joy program.
According to Fahrenthold, Jared Kushner — the scion of another major New York real estate family and Trump’s son-in-law — is holding the tenants of his lucrative real estate empire to a much different standard than what he is seeking for his own family business during the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
The revelation came as Reid was asking Fahrenthold about how the outbreak of the disease and its concomitant financial repercussions have affected Trump’s family.
“[Trump’s] adult children, they seem to derive most of their income and, you know, you’re the expert on this, from his businesses, things with his surname on them,” the MSNBC host said. “So in terms of their income, without these hotels, without these resorts and the money coming in from them and the foreign emoluments coming in, where do they get their money?”
“Well, the main source of income, if the hotels and restaurants are closed, is a couple office buildings that don’t even have their name on them, one in New York, one in San Francisco,” Fahrenthold replied. “Those produce a lot of cash. It will continue to produce it for a while just because it’s so hard to get out of leases,” the reporter said about the Trump organization.
Joy Reid wasn’t done, however, and pressed The Washington Post journalist about Ivanka Trump’s husband and his businesses.
“And let’s talk about Jared for a moment,” Reid continued. “Rather than relax the rent requirements for his tenants, and some of his tenants are in tough positions, in Maryland and other places, that they are enforcing to the maximum that they want their money. What about his income? A lot of it does come from being not the best landlord.”
“I’m not the world’s expert on Jared Kushner, but I have read that,” said Fahrenthold. “At the same time, the Kushner Company is asking for leniency from its lenders — there’s a retail space in Times Square that I’ve read they’re having trouble making the payments on. So they’re forcing others to make payments while trying to get out of it themselves.”
Hypocrisy thy name is Kushner, as well as Trump.
Hypocrisy has many aliases in Republican circles these days with GOP senators dumping their stocks on insider information about the seriousness of the then-upcoming pandemic while simultaneously reassuring their constituents that the disease was merely a Democratic hoax meant to harm the president politically.
The sudden national emergency can bring out the best in many Americans as they go out of tier way to help others — even with the simple act of following medical professionals’ advice to remain isolated from others until the threat of overwhelming our hospitals with infected patients is over.
It can also bring out the worst in people as hoarders, profiteers, and Republican politicians and their families all so amply demonstrate.
Jared Kushner’s crying mercy, but he don’t know the meaning of the word (apologies to Mose Allison.)
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Matthew Chapman at RawStory.
