Jared Kushner Reportedly In Talks To Form A Donald Trump-Themed News Outlet
Jared Kushner has reportedly been floating the idea of starting a news outlet or media company highlighting his father-in-law, Donald Trump, which some are taking as a sign that the Trump campaign expects him to lose in the upcoming election.
As Business Insider revealed, the senior White House adviser has mentioned the concept of a Trump-themed network before, but he has recently renewed and increased his efforts to make the plan come to life.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Jared’s future is in building a media empire of some kind,” one source said. “He believes that controlling the media means controlling the policy, controlling the people.”
Kushner, who has reportedly been influential in the re-election bid, owned The New York Observer for years, so the concept of a media empire isn’t entirely outside of his wheelhouse.
He has also made it known in the past that he is interested in building another media empire, including in 2016 when it appeared that Trump would lose his bid for the oval office. At that time, he was reportedly in talks with Sinclair Broadcasting to purchase the media giant.
The plan would apparently be to create a platform that would fill the gap between Fox News and extremely conservative sites such as One America News Network. It could likely be a chain or 24/7 cable news operation, but might be digital news or social-media focused reporting.
“You have the opening created by Fox News, which sounds like CNN during the day and has some conservative voices in the evening,” an insider said.
There doesn’t appear to be any concrete plans in place as of yet, whether the plot is to purchase an existing platform or build one from scratch. But that doesn’t mean that the concept isn’t at least in the beginning stages.
“Republicans familiar with Kushner’s media discussions said the talks hadn’t gotten as far as they went in 2016. Back then, Kushner began chatting up the New York investment banker and dealmaker Aryeh Bourkoff on the idea of a Trump-branded outlet, the Financial Times and New York Times reported in 2016,” Business Insider reported.
It isn’t clear how Trump would be involved, whether he would be lending his name or making appearances.
Still, Kushner may consider an option like merging with Fox News, something that one former White House official questioned as something the entrepreneur could pull off successfully. He likened the idea to the XFL versus the NFL.
A representative for Kushner denied the report, calling it false.
