President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday named Charles Kushner, a real estate developer and father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as his nominee for U.S. ambassador to France.
The announcement, made on Trump’s Truth Social platform, praised Charles Kushner as “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, and dealmaker.”
“I am pleased to nominate Charles Kushner, of New Jersey, to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to France. He is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests,” Trump wrote. “Together, we will strengthen America’s partnership with France, our oldest Ally, & one of our greatest!”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign and Charles Kushner via Kushner Companies’ email for comment.
Charles Kushner founded Kushner Companies, a real estate firm that has since been said to be worth $2.9 billion, according to Forbes in October. His son, Jared, served as a senior adviser in the first Trump administration and is married to Ivanka Trump, the president-elect’s eldest daughter.
However, Jared has previously said he doesn’t plan on serving in the president-elect’s second administration. He said at an event in Miami in February that he’s been “very clear” on wanting to focus on his private equity firm.
Meanwhile, the nomination comes after Trump controversially pardoned Charles, along with several other close associates, in 2020. Charles was sentenced to two years in prison in 2005 after he pled guilty to 18 counts, including tax evasion and witness tampering.
John Minchillo/AP
At the heart of the case was Charles’ retaliation against his brother-in-law for cooperating with federal investigators. Before he pled guilty to a range of crimes, Charles had discovered that his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal investigators and decided to hatch a plan to intimidate hm by paying a prostitute to lure him to a hotel room.
That room had hidden cameras set up to record the encounter. Charles then had the video sent to his sister, the wife of his brother-in-law.
The legal case was prosecuted by Chris Christie, a then U.S. attorney for New Jersey and later governor of the state and Republican presidential candidate. Christie ran against Trump in the 2016 and 2024 Republican primaries.
Christie had previously described Charles’ actions during a January 2019 interview with PBS as “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney,” and alleged in a 2019 book that he was fired from Trump’s transition team because Jared held a grudge against him over the elder Kushner’s prosecution.
Trump’s pick of Charles Kushner comes after he has faced backlash over several of his choices in nominees for his upcoming administration including: former Representative Matt Gaetz, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, billionaire Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as they have all been at the forefront of controversies involving several factors including sexual assault allegations.
While Gaetz has since withdrawn his nomination and he, Hegseth, Musk, and Kennedy Jr. have all denied these allegations, concerns still remain over Trump’s key Cabinet appointments.
