Trump’s White House Does Not Want To Talk About Kushner And Russia. At All.

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GIARDINI NAXOS, Italy – Two of President Donald Trump’s top aides Saturday refused to discuss a report that his son-in-law Jared Kushner had sought to create a secret back channel to open communications with Russia.

During a half-hour news conference marking the end of the two-day G7 summit in nearby Taormina, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and chief economic adviser Gary Cohn said Trump had succeeded in all his goals for his inaugural foreign trip ― restore U.S. leadership, build relationships with other world leaders, and show unity among the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

“Now, it is clear that the president delivered on all three,” McMaster said.

“The president wants you to know that the meetings are going unbelievably well,” Cohn added.

Neither, though, would talk about Kushner, who is also a top White House adviser. “Just not going comment on Jared,” Cohn said at one point. “We’re just not going to comment.”

McMaster did say that, generally speaking, he does not oppose all back channel communications with other nations, and that they are sometimes necessary. But he would not say whether that guideline would apply to what Kushner reportedly did.

A Washington Post report on Friday said Kushner had discussed the idea of setting up a communications channel using equipment at the Russian embassy to thwart U.S. surveillance systems of the pre-inauguration conversations. Trump’s initial national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, was reportedly also involved.

Trump wrapped up his nine-day trip Saturday afternoon following visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Belgium and finally the meeting of the world’s largest democratically run economies at the seaside resort town on Sicily’s east coast. He did not hold any news conferences during the trip, instead answering the occasional question shouted at him.

Following the Memorial Day weekend, he will likely have to return to daily news reports about the ongoing FBI investigation into alleged contacts between his campaign and Russian intelligence agencies.

The U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia worked to hurt Clinton and help Trump during the 2016 election, in part by stealing documents and emails from the Democratic Party and from Clinton’s campaign chairman and then releasing embarrassing ones on a near daily basis in the final weeks of the campaign through WikiLeaks.

Trump praised WikiLeaks for doing this in almost every campaign appearance in October, and for months claimed that it was impossible to know who had stolen the emails.

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Since a tie that long can get caught in one&rsquo;s zipper, it&rsquo;s considered a fashion faux pas. Of course, so is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-tie-inauguration-scotch-tape_us_58837f78e4b0e3a735693611">holding a tie together with tape,</a> something Donald Trump has also done on numerous occasions.
University of Massachusetts psychology professor Susan Krauss Whitbourne speculates Trump wears his ties so long to either <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/whats-really-behind-those-long-trump-ties_us_58eb9e68e4b0ea028d568b45">call attention to his genitalia</a> or take the focus away from his protruding gut.
But a&nbsp;new Twitter page,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/trumpsties?lang=en" target="_blank">@TrumpsTies</a>,&nbsp;isn&rsquo;t psychoanalyzing why the president&rsquo;s ties are so long. It&rsquo;s just taking his&nbsp;bizarre style choice to its obvious extreme.
The page's creator is a Chicago-based graphic artist hobbyist who doesn't want his name tied to the Twitter page.&nbsp;He insists it's not because he's afraid of being targeted by Trump trolls -- he just doesn't want his own identity to distract from the project.
The page's creator is a Chicago-based graphic artist hobbyist who doesn't want his name tied to the Twitter page. He insists it's not because he's afraid of being targeted by Trump trolls -- he just doesn't want his own identity to distract from the project.
The creator&nbsp;considers his edited photos&nbsp;of Trump's fashion choices&nbsp;to be "a Rorschach test of satire."
The creator considers his edited photos of Trump's fashion choices to be "a Rorschach test of satire."
"People who are pro-Trump think it's cute," the creator said. "Anti-Trump people think it's funny, but less cute and more poignant."
"People who are pro-Trump think it's cute," the creator said. "Anti-Trump people think it's funny, but less cute and more poignant."
Although Trump and some of his followers tend to shout "fake news" when&nbsp;they read or hear something they don't like about the president, the man behind @TrumpTies says there can be no argument about the president's taste in fashion.<br /><br />"He wears his ties too long," the creator said. "That's factual."
Although Trump and some of his followers tend to shout "fake news" when they read or hear something they don't like about the president, the man behind @TrumpTies says there can be no argument about the president's taste in fashion.

"He wears his ties too long," the creator said. "That's factual."
The color of the tie doesn't matter, the creator said. What's important is how Trump is reacting to the other person in the photo. "But it's funny, how the tie becomes a character," he said.
The color of the tie doesn't matter, the creator said. What's important is how Trump is reacting to the other person in the photo. "But it's funny, how the tie becomes a character," he said.
The Twitter page has only been around since February, but has nearly 25,000 followers. The creator admits to hoping circumstances might change so he doesn't have to follow Trump's ties through two presidential terms.<br /><br />"Even four years is a long time," he said.
The Twitter page has only been around since February, but has nearly 25,000 followers. The creator admits to hoping circumstances might change so he doesn't have to follow Trump's ties through two presidential terms.

"Even four years is a long time," he said.
Now maybe someone can focus on Trump's other ties -- the ones with Russia.
Now maybe someone can focus on Trump's other ties -- the ones with Russia.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.