The US' domestic political situation is highly unstable after Trump's surprise election brought its preexisting "deep state" fault lines to the surface. Both democratically elected representatives and members of the permanent bureaucracy conspired with the Mainstream Media and their cadre of "experts" in a failed attempt to overthrow the President through the Russiagate scandal, but no sooner had their witch hunt been exposed by none other than Special Counsel Robert Mueller himself did they begin to divert their attention to a latent conspiracy theory that they kept brewing over the past two years as a backup plan for use in precisely this scenario.
The prevailing narrative being put forth by the Mainstream Media at the behest of the Democrats and their "deep state" handlers is that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is either an "agent of influence" or a "useful idiot" of a foreign power after it emerged that the President's opponents in the security services initially refused to grant the international businessman the security clearance that was required for him to fulfill his role as the US' unofficial envoy for negotiating the so-called "Deal of the Century". The purported basis on which they declined his clearance was that his many foreign ties theoretically make him susceptible to blackmail and other forms of influence that could undermine the US' national security, though Trump apparently intervened to override their refusal and ultimately get Kushner his clearance.
It's true that the man tasked with negotiating the "Deal of the Century" has extensive international interests and is openly biased towards Israel, but that doesn't in principle make him any different than many other government officials, both elected and otherwise. Rather, it appears as though Trump's institutional enemies are merely trying to thwart him once more by repackaging the discredited "foreign puppet" conspiracy theory that they preconditioned millions of Americans to believe throughout the course of the Russiagate fake news campaign and customizing it for weaponization against Kushner ahead of the 2020 general elections.
The obvious innuendo that they're peddling is that Trump was aware of his enemies' "national security" concerns about Kushner but recklessly disregarded them at America's expense out of pure nepotism, suggesting at the very least that he could care less about any possible "collusion" and that he might even be guilty of the same in the worst-case scenario despite Mueller officially ruling out that possibility. In any case, it's unimportant to the Democrats and their "deep state" handlers that this is a completely false narrative because all that matters to them is that it influences voters ahead of the upcoming elections and potentially gets them to go against Trump.
As such, it can be argued that the emerging conspiracy theory about Kushner being an "agent of influence" or a "useful idiot" of a foreign power (possibly with the President's knowledge and personal approval) is yet another iteration of the "deep state's" efforts to meddle in the US' electoral process in order to "democratically" overthrow Trump just like how they desperately tried to prevent his election in the first place back in 2016. Such efforts aren't necessarily anything new, but it's just that the public became more aware of them after the dramatic events of the past two and a half years.
Accordingly, this is just the continuation of a long-existing trend, albeit in a much more open manner than previously practiced. It's exceptionally fierce this time around, however, because of the "deep state's" heated factionalism surrounding all issues related to the Mideast, seen most clearly through the behind-the-scenes controversy that erupted in the run-up to Obama's much-celebrated nuclear deal with Iran and the international political fallout afterwards. The previous President was thought to have pursued a paradigm shift in American grand strategy by trying to "balance" Mideast affairs through a tacit "partnership" with Iran, whereas the incumbent is much more "traditional" and totally devoted to protecting Israeli and Saudi interests at all costs.
Kushner is front and center in this "deep state" inter-factional competition because of his extremely pro-Israeli views that his opponents are obviously trying to imply are the result of a foreign intelligence operation of some sort and not due to his own personal beliefs, which is of relevance to Americans and the rest of the world because of his influential role in negotiating the "Deal of the Century" that will likely be heavily to Tel Aviv's favor at the Arabs' expense. He's therefore an easy target whose numerous enemies can score important political points by attacking.
Seeing as how few issues rile up the public more than the Israeli-Palestinian one, especially after freshman Representative Ilhan Omar's recent AIPAC scandal, it's logical in hindsight why Trump's "deep state" foes are going forth with this conspiracy theory after Russiagate's failure. The fact of the matter is that unlike Russiagate, "Kushnergate" is actually based on solid empirical evidence of the President's trusted advisor and son-in-law pandering to the interests of a foreign party, but it's just that he's doing this out of his own will due to the zeal with which he evidently identifies as a Zionist and not as a result of some shadowy plot.
DISCLAIMER: The author writes for this publication in a private capacity which is unrepresentative of anyone or any organization except for his own personal views. Nothing written by the author should ever be conflated with the editorial views or official positions of any other media outlet or institution.
