Jared Kushner’s Family-Owned Baltimore Apartment Complexes Reportedly Had Mice Infestations
Last weekend, responding to House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings's interrogation of Trump's acting head of Homeland Security, Donald Trump tweeted that the Democratic Maryland congressman should first deal with Baltimore, a "disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess," before asking questions about the administration's child detention camps.
On Monday, Trump renewed his attack on Cummings and roped in "the squad," four minority congresswomen who Trump has previously said should "go back" to their own countries. He called Cummings a "racist" and contended that Democrats always play "the race card." Then he tweeted, "If the Democrats are going to defend the Radical Left 'Squad' and King Elijah’s Baltimore Fail, it will be a long road to 2020."
Trump, of course, never applies the same kind of criticism to his own party, ignoring the fact that five of the poorest and hungriest states in the country—Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Mississippi—are under total Republican control, with GOP governors and GOP-dominated state houses. But the irony of Trump's use of Baltimore as a cudgel is that some of the blame for living conditions in some parts of the city can be laid at the feet of real estate developers like him. In fact, one in particular is directly related to the president: his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
According to The Baltimore Sun, the Kushner family company owned more than 9,000 rental units in 17 complexes in Maryland—many of them in Baltimore County—even before it purchased an additional 6,000 in Virginia and Maryland in February of this year. Kushner himself has temporarily divested from the company during his time as Trump's White House adviser, but he certainly stands to profit off of it when he leaves political life. As The Washington Post reports, the properties generate about $90 million a year in revenue, and in 2017 they racked up an accumulated 200 code violations in 12 months. Local officials told the Post that most repairs weren't made until the county threatened fines, and even then violations at nine properties were never addressed.
Two years ago, an extensive joint investigation by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine found that rents range from $800 to $1,300, and since Baltimore County offers no public housing, "these and similar complexes have become the de facto substitute." For complexes with hundreds of units, typically only about four workers look after each one. Tenants reported mice and maggot infestations and mold problems. While many tenants know their landlord as negligent and litigious, few knew that their homes were owned by the president's son-in-law's company, thanks in part to the elaborate series of middlemen and property managers typically separating landlords and tenants. A private investigator characterized the company responsible for managing Kushner's Baltimore properties succinctly: "They’re nothing but slumlords."
Of course, the president was getting his information on Baltimore from Fox & Friends, not from anyone who actually lives there, let alone in his son-in-law's properties. Nor does he actually care about the vermin, since his home base of New York City has a rat problem dramatically worse than that of Baltimore. The actual conditions in Baltimore are beside the point. He could be talking about any city or district, as long as there's a large nonwhite population with a nonwhite person representing them.
Originally Appeared on GQ
