President Donald Trump has suggested his men on the frontlines of three raging wars are not working hard enough.
Jared Kushner, the 79-year-old’s son-in-law, has teamed up with Trump’s Middle East envoy and top aide Steve Witkoff to negotiate peace in Gaza, Iran and Ukraine, to name just a few.
Concerns have mounted about having the same small team trying to barter the end of several extremely nuanced conflicts, especially when Trump keeps starting more.
It comes as the pair’s Tuesday trip to Israel was canceled, but not because the president thinks they need a break. Actually, he thinks they have room for even more work.
“They don’t have too much,” Trump told Politico, even though Kushner and Witkoff have probably seen the inside of a plane more than their own families over the last year.
During the exclusive interview published Tuesday morning, he added, clearly not worried that his top diplomats are stretched thin, “They actually have—they have capacity for more, to be honest with you.”
However, outside observers disagree with the president. Former State Department negotiator Aaron David Miller, who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, said the “risk of overextension” is real.
In one week alone last month, the pair were in Geneva to conduct talks on the Iranian nuclear program before turning to two days of talks on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Then they jetted to Washington, D.C. for the first meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” a panel set up to, ostensibly at least, figure out an end to the prolonged conflict in Gaza.
Marco Rubio, who is both secretary of state and national security adviser, “seems reduced to a bystander,” The New York Times noted.
But Trump is unmoved in his belief that his small team is effective. “I think they’re doing a great job,” he told Politico on Friday. “People like that you can’t hire.”
His recent comments also suggest that Kushner and Witkoff could be relieved of their duties soon. “We’re achieving major strides toward completing our military objective, and some people could say they’re pretty well complete,” he said at Trump National Doral in Miami on Monday, reading from a prepared statement.
Witkoff was present as Trump made this statement, but as he will know, the president could very quickly change tack again and commit to his war in the region for longer.
Iran also responded bullishly to the comments. “We are the ones who will determine the end of the war,” an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson said, according to Reuters. “We will continue to fight until Trump declares defeat.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
