Jared Kushner has reentered the political spotlight as a top envoy for the Trump White House in efforts to secure a peace deal in the Middle East, highlighting both his influence in the region and his growing business portfolio there.

Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law who served as a senior White House adviser in Trump’s first term, has been on the sidelines of the second administration. But he has reemerged to take on a major role in one of Trump’s key foreign policy efforts.

“I put Jared there because he’s a very smart person and he knows the region, knows the people, knows a lot of the players,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Thursday.

Kushner took on a top role alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff in trying to finalize a peace agreement that would see Hamas release 20 living hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, while Israeli forces would pause their offensive in Gaza.

Kushner has not had a formal role in the second Trump administration, but has remained an informal adviser, with Witkoff keeping him in the loop on Middle East efforts, two U.S. officials told reporters in a call Thursday evening. Kushner’s involvement ramped up in the past week as a deal got closer, they said.

Kushner and Witkoff were the chief architects behind Trump’s 20-point peace plan for ending the war, the officials added.

The two men were then dispatched to Egypt to help finalize the deal, which Trump announced on Truth Social on Wednesday evening. Both Kushner and Witkoff have met with leaders from Egypt and Israel since Trump publicly announced the agreement.

“They’re an incredible team working together, facing some substantial impediments to even being there,” national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during the meeting Thursday.

While serving as an informal adviser to the White House this year, Kushner has only........

© The Hill