Jared Kushner believes 'everyone is out to get him' after recent White House revelations, say reports

Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has reportedly told confidants that he fears everyone in the White House is “out to get him” after a spate of bad headlines.

A source close to Mr Kushner told CNN he had been acting paranoid in recent days, and believes people inside and outside the White House are conspiring against him. The presidential adviser recently lost his top secret security clearance, and is facing embarrassing reports about his real estate company and his contacts with foreign countries.

Mr Kushner reportedly believes that the intelligence community intentionally held off on a story about his foreign contacts until his security clearances issues hit the news, in order to generate a bigger impact. He also reportedly resents Chief of Staff John Kelly for downgrading his security clearance, asking others: “Why is John Kelly doing this?"

Mr Kelly downgraded interim security clearances for Mr Kushner and more than 30 other White House aides last week, amid mounting scrutiny of the administration's security clearance process.

Mr Kushner, whose wide-ranging portfolio includes prison reform and making peace in the Middle East, was downgraded from “top secret” to “secret” clearance. He will no longer have access to Mr Trump’s daily intelligence briefings.

Mr Kelly said in a statement that he had “full confidence in [Mr Kushner’s] ability to continue performing his duties in his foreign policy portfolio including overseeing our Israeli-Palestinian peace effort and serving as an integral part of our relationship with Mexico".

This week, the Washington Post reported that US officials had intercepted conversations between officials from China, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and Israel about using Mr Kushner’s business dealings and lack of foreign policy experience to manipulate him. An unnamed White House official cited this as one reason Mr Kushner was unable to obtain a permanent security clearance.

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Mr Kushner’s real estate business had received more than half a billion dollars in loans from two companies whose executives met with him at the White House. The story raised long-simmering issues about possible conflicts of interest in the Trump White House.

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Mr Kushner’s attorney, said in a statement that the former real-estate developer had met with “hundreds” of business people while at the White House, but had not taken part in any business, loans, or projects with his company since joining the administration.

Mr Mirijanian did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.