Gulf states that poured hundreds of millions into Jared Kushner’s private equity firm are openly griping that they got little for their money, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE funneled enormous sums into Affinity Partners, Kushner’s Florida-based investment vehicle, in hopes of securing White House influence and healthy portfolio returns, the outlet reported. Instead, Trump launched a war on Iran that all three states had opposed, leaving them with little to show for the arrangement.
The firm, founded in 2021, has seen its assets balloon to roughly $6.16 billion, according to a regulatory filing submitted to the SEC in March, with about 99 percent of that money sourced from non-U.S. clients. Sources told Bloomberg the Gulf trio agreed to pay Kushner tens of millions of dollars in annual fees in hopes of gaining sway in Washington.
The Qataris in particular had pressed the Trump administration to steer clear of an all-out war with Iran, Bloomberg reported. Trump went forward anyway, and Kushner’s handling of the conflict has become a sore point for officials in Riyadh and Doha.
“The investments in Jared’s firm were meant to anchor ties with the Trump family,” Sanam Vakil, who heads the Middle East and North Africa portfolio at Chatham House, the London-based think tank, told the outlet. “The Gulf states likely felt very angered, if not let down, that the U.S. didn’t fully consider their security needs.”
Cinzia Bianco, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, warned the fallout could prove lasting. The Gulf states are “grappling with the fact that their investments didn’t get them influence on something that’s really existential for them,” she said, adding that “this will result in them rethinking their investments and pledges going forward.”