Hakeem Jeffries and Jared Kushner Meeting Reveals Ugly Truths About U.S. Politics

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

26 Aug 2026

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If the Democratic Party prevails in the midterm elections, Hakeem Jeffries will become the Speaker of the House of Representatives. But his decision to meet with Jared Kushner was a textbook case of how politics really operate and shows why a democratic win will once again bring disappointment to their voters. As Jeffries proved, they work on behalf of the ruling class.

According to the New York Times, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries held an undisclosed, i.e. secret, meeting with Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. “The rare engagement was held in a private space in New York City, offered up by a mutual friend of the two men, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting and a third who was briefed on it.”

While millions of Democratic Party voters worry about Trump interfering in the voting process in the November midterm elections or demand investigations of the Trump administration or even impeachment of Trump himself, one of their “leaders” is meeting with his son-in-law on the sly. This sordid tale of the hapless Jeffries is instructive if nothing else. His readiness to take part in a dubious encounter that would inevitably become public makes clear what astute observers already knew: rich people call the shots. They tell the people who pass for political leadership what to do, and in turn they do as they are told.

The “mutual friend” has not been identified but it is logical to assume that this person is a wealthy Democratic Party donor. How else would Jeffries and Kushner be in the same orbit? And yes, Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have donated to democrats themselves, including to Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. Only the rubes believe that there are no political connections at the very top of the ruling classes.

Hakeem Jeffries was groomed to take over congressional leadership after Nancy Pelosi stepped down, but he certainly lacks her savvy in accepting a meeting that took place before the November elections. He might have made a more convincing excuse if a meeting occurred after democrats retook control of the House. He then might have said that he wanted to work with Kushner and the administration, but now he just gives the appearance of being bought off and not very smart either.

But the midterm elections are more than two months away and everyone wants to know what promises Kushner wanted to extract from Jeffries. Kushner is technically not an administration official but, along with Trump friend Steve Witkoff, has been involved with negotiations in the Ukraine war, meeting with heads of state Vladimir Putin in Russia and Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine. Kushner is a central figure in implementing the so-called Abraham Accords, making recognition of Israel a prerequisite for staying on the Trump administration’s good side. He also played a leading role in the bizarrely named Gaza Board of Peace, along with Witkoff, and his Affinity Partners private equity firm has interests throughout the Middle East. It isn’t hard to understand that Kushner would be the point person for the Jeffries side show or that he has worries about Democratic Party control of congress that might impact him directly.

It is generally assumed that Kushner wanted pledges of continuity in Middle East policy, including arming Israel and continuing a regime change plan against Iran. Of course Jeffries has his leadership position in part because he has already taken that oath. Kushner wouldn’t need to meet with someone who was already on the same zionist page.

Jeffries is loyal to the rich people who actually control politics in this country. As an example, Jeffries is no longer supporting single payer healthcare, most commonly known as Medicare for All, and he said as much on the program Meet the Press. Host Kristin Welker asked, “Just be very clear though, as the Democratic leader in the House, would you vote for or against Medicare for All?” Jeffries replied, “I think as you’ve indicated in your question to me, it’s not legislation that I currently am co-sponsoring or that I support.”

Medicare for All is extremely popular, with 65% of likely voters overall and even 49% of republicans favoring a new system that would guarantee affordable healthcare coverage for everyone. Jeffries had supported Medicare for All before becoming House leader. Obviously it is a program that the democrats’ donor class does not want and that means its leadership will defy the wishes of their members in order to please the people who write the big checks.

The fact that the meeting took place at all indicates that Trump is worried about losing control of the House. He is also worried that some democrats might actually make good on their plans to investigate him and his family members, including Kushner. A Politico headline read, “Democrats put Trump’s ‘corruption’ front and center as they plan possible 2027 probes.”

Regardless of what the two men discussed, Jeffries was most definitely in the hot seat after the meeting became public. He also did what most people do when they are publicly embarrassed. He embarrassed himself further.

Jeffries released a cringe worthy video of himself beginning with the words, “What’s up y’all?” that went downhill from there. He said he would present “real talk” regarding the meeting, while posing in a mint green New York Yankees cap and matching shirt, sitting in front of a Brooklyn apartment building in his district where he said he attended a community event.

He claimed that he took the Kushner meeting to discuss the affordability crisis and that he would hold the “Trump cartel” accountable. Did he think there was a Trump cartel when he took the meeting? Who wants to meet with a cartel of any kind? And lastly, no one knew that Kushner had any interest in the lives of working people, making this claim of a meeting rationale completely illogical.

Of course there really is a cartel. It’s called the billionaire class and we live under their rule. So do members of congress and that is the bottom line of this strange story. Voters in this country rarely get what they want because the Kushners of the world call the shots with the help of their errand boys and girls, who are otherwise known as party leaders.

Even James Carville, Bill Clinton hatchet man and self-proclaimed enemy of the left, knows that democrats should at least pretend to be enemies of republicans and took Jeffries to task. “Dont meet with them. Don’t have anything to do with them. Any business we have is going to be conducted with you under oath subject to aggressive discovery.” Carville knows the importance of appearing to fight for what democratic voters want.

The Kushner meeting was no anomaly. It demonstrated how the political game is played. In February 2025 Jeffries met with Silicon Valley executives who had once been staunch members of the Democratic Party but who as one attendee put it were “feeling very purple,” that is to say a mix of blue and red. One donor advisor was far more blunt after Trump’s 2024 victory. That so-called fence mending meeting was meant to keep wealthy democrats from straying as they watched others jump on the Trump bandwagon and make out like bandits.

“There is a significant fear that these tech folks, who have been with us for a long time, will say, ‘fuck it, we’re going with the other guys . . . These donors are also pissed, watching former and current colleagues have unlimited, unchecked power, and getting richer off of this and they’re not.”

In a way we have to be grateful for Jeffries’ lack of political intuition in creating this mess for himself. He revealed the ugly truth about how politics really work and ensured that he will face more scrutiny should the democrats prevail and he becomes Speaker of the House. He would be the first Black Speaker, but to what end? Black people will be no better off with a scoundrel who happens to look like us. We have seen this movie and we know how it ends, with nothing to show for the feeling of pride at seeing a Black face in a high place but one which has been vetted to ensure that Black people would benefit very little from their presence.

In his silly video Hakeem Jeffries said that people are “. . . stressed the F out.” Indeed we are and not just because living is less and less affordable. Voting blue no matter who will get a democrat in the Speaker’s chair who will ask “How high?” when he is told to jump. Hakeem Jeffries proved that Silicon Valley and private equity and defense contractors are the ones who govern. We are stressed when we see that claims of democracy are a gigantic farce.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.