TRUMP FAMILY/JARED KUSHNER: “Back in December 2016, the Chinese foreign minister traveled to Manhattan to meet privately with Jared Kushner for emergency discussions after President-elect Donald Trump’s unorthodox phone call with the president of Taiwan…
It was a sign of the lead role that Kushner occupied as Trump’s chief diplomatic contact for the Chinese. But now, as Trump heads to Asia for the first time as president next month — a trip that will include a high-stakes reunion with a newly empowered Chinese President Xi Jinping on his home turf — Trump’s son-in-law is expected to see his diplomatic role greatly diminished.
Kushner’s shrinking role on the international stage is seen by some White House officials as another sign of Trump’s new chief of staff, John Kelly, standardizing a previously unorthodox power structure. Other White House aides say it’s evidence of a lean administration finally filling out and now running at full power. Kushner, they say, was moving away from the China portfolio pre-Kelly, dropping responsibilities he held as recently as April, when he helped plan Xi’s visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.”
-Annie Karni and Andrew Restuccia, “Kushner will take a diminished role on Trump’s China trip,” Politico, Oct. 25, 2017 08:25pm