Jared Kushner, a Manhattan real estate developer with no diplomatic credentials, emerged as the United States's lead nuclear negotiator with Iran at a moment when the Trump administration had already stripped its own State Department of more than 1,300 professional staff.
The arrangement, which drew immediate criticism from members of both parties, placed Kushner and fellow real estate developer Steve Witkoff at the table for talks that would determine the course of a potential armed conflict. Critics pointed to Kushner's undisclosed fundraising from several of the same Gulf governments with a direct financial stake in the outcome of any Iran deal.
