There’s a Kushner who has been in the news a whole lot lately, and for the first time in a while it’s not Jared. Sure, the first son-in-law still gets plenty of press for the bang-up job he’s been doing on behalf of the Trump administration in Iran, Gaza, and Ukraine and for the mass protests he and Ivanka have inspired in Albania with their little island project. But recently it’s Jared’s younger brother, Josh, who seems to be everywhere: buying the Lakers with the former president of Disney; at the center of the FIFA imbroglio; plowing billions into AI; attending Taylor Swift’s wedding.
As the younger Kushner has historically kept a much lower profile than his big bro, you may have questions such as, How does Josh feel about Donald Trump? Is he richer than Jared? Does he also believe he can bring peace to the Middle East on account of having read 25 books on Israeli-Palestinian relations? Herewith, a Josh Kushner primer.
His purchase of the Lakers was a big surprise
When the news broke on Wednesday that Kushner, along with former Disney chief Bob Iger, was buying the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal valuing the NBA franchise at $12.5 billion, the response from many was, Wait, what? Didn’t someone else just buy the team? That confusion was likely based on the fact that, yes, only just last summer, investor Mark Walter had purchased a controlling stake in the Lakers, then valuing the team at $10 billion. According to The Athletic, “Kushner reached out to Walter on Friday and the deal quickly came together over the weekend … Walter, per the source, wasn’t necessarily looking to sell — the offer from Kushner and Iger was just too good to pass up.”
Kushner previously owned a minority stake in the Memphis Grizzlies and currently owns a minority stake in the Miami Heat, which he will now have to sell. He and Iger were introduced by Kushner’s then-girlfriend (now-wife) Karlie Kloss. According to the New York Times, Kushner’s Lakers investment “was done partly through Thrive Eternal,” the arm of his company, Thrive, which invests long term in businesses “it believes will not be significantly disrupted by AI.”
Apropos of nothing, Walter is a friend of Donald Trump’s and is currently being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible fraud. So the sale to the brother of Trump’s son-in-law has made some people at the very least let out an audible hmmm, but the White House is here to say there’s absolutely nothing to see here, telling Front Office Sports the deal “has nothing to do with President Trump or his administration.”
He was part of the ill-fated attempt by FIFA’s Gianni Infantino to sell the World Cup to the highest bidders
Earlier this month, FIFA chief Gianni Infantino — another close pal of the president — announced a plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to investors, a scheme that swiftly crashed and burned and may cost the guy his job. Kushner’s firm was set to play a key role in the plan and “leverage its own investment by courting long-term institutional investors from around the world … relying principally on sovereign wealth funds.”
He’s (a lot) richer than Jared
The FIFA deal might not have worked out, but many, many others have. Through his VC firm, Thrive Capital, and its various offshoots, Kushner has invested in Stripe, Instagram, OpenAI, and SpaceX (he also co-founded Oscar Health). According to Forbes, his net worth is roughly $5.2 billion. By comparison, Jared is worth a paltry $1 billion.
He owned a real-estate firm with his brother that gave slumlord vibes
Josh and Jared previously co-owned a Maryland property-management company, JK2, that a judge found “repeatedly violated state consumer protection laws by collecting debts without required licenses, charging tenants improper fees and misrepresenting the condition of rental units.”
He’s definitely not MAGA
Kushner the younger is a lifelong Democrat. In 2016, he went on the record to declare he would not vote for Trump. In 2017, he attended the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., and the same year told Forbes, “It is no secret that liberal values have guided my life and that I have supported political leaders that share similar values.” In 2024, he donated $250,000 to Growth Democrats, a political-action committee.
His wife is a fellow Dem who has somehow never met Donald Trump
In 2018, Josh married model and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, who also did not vote for Trump. In fact, in an interview with Bloomberg last month — in which she reaffirmed that she’s a Democrat — she said she has never met the president, which definitely seems like a purposeful choice. She contributed to Barack Obama’s Presidential Center and wrote glowingly of the former president on Instagram when the center opened in June, including a photo of her beaming while shaking his hand. She has also been a major advocate for abortion access in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.
The couple owns a bunch of iconic magazines
In 2024, Kloss and Kushner’s Bedford Media announced it would be reviving Life magazine. (Puck’s Lauren Sherman reported this week that former New York Times Magazine editor Hugo Lindgren and former Bloomberg Businessweek creative director Richard Turley are shaping the reboot.) The media group also owns i-D magazine, and Kloss is a part owner of W magazine.
Kushner and Kloss attended (America’s) royal wedding
After conflicting reports about whether they snagged an invite, the couple attended Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Fourth of July weekend wedding.
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Source: New York Magazine
