In a White House where President Donald Trump commands reverence, Jared Kushner often refers to the president by one name: Donald. And while cable TV can dominate the president’s mood and set the agenda for senior administration staff, Kushner usually keeps his large flat-screen TV in his office turned off, a stark departure from other top aides.

Kushner, the president’s 36-year-old son-in-law and White House senior adviser, does essentially what he wants, having the benefit of not only Trump's ear but — as a family member — his implicit trust.

That trust has resulted in a vast portfolio that so far includes negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, helping oversee relations with Canada, China and Mexico and, as of this week, reinventing the federal government through the new White House Office of American Innovation.

But Kushner's status as the big-issue guru has stoked resentment among his colleagues, who question whether Kushner is capable of following through on his various commitments and complain that his dabbling in myriad issues and his tendency to walk in and out of meetings have complicated efforts to instill more order and organization into the chaotic administration. These people also say Kushner can be a shrewd self promoter, knowing how to take credit — and shirk blame — whenever it suits him.

“He's saving the government and the Middle East at the same time,” one senior administration official quipped.
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“Everyone is jealous,” said one person close to the White House. Kushner is “the ultimate decider. Mostly people are jealous."
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Yet he is frequently the last person Trump speaks to at night. He spends most weekends with his father-in-law, traveling to Florida aboard Air Force One. Last week, he called lawmakers from a vacation in Aspen, Colo., as the health care bill went off the rails — and, while several aides questioned his decision to go on holiday at such a critical time, Kushner was the one who went to dinner with the president the day after the bill failed, joined by his wife Ivanka Trump--who is now also taking a formal position alongside her husband in her father’s administration.

Kushner’s boosters see him as “a visionary” who is bringing to government a disruptive Silicon Valley mindset that helped him succeed in the technology and real estate industries, as well as on Trump’s unconventional presidential campaign.

Executive actions don't equal legislation: That lack of an ability to get much done on Capitol Hill has hobbled Trump's agenda. During the campaign, Trump made big, bold promises.

So far, he has tried to follow through on them with big, bold... executive orders. (He's on pace for 100 or more this year, which would be a higher rate than any president back to Truman.) This week, Trump sought to curtail President Obama's environmental rules and appeared to soften his harsh stance on NAFTA espoused during last year's campaign.

But here's a reality check on executive orders: they're usually something presidents resort to when they can't get legislation through. (See: Obama, Barack and immigration.) They're only so useful. They have their limits, which is why presidents still need Congress.

The United States of America has been left in stitches today after President and pantone reference point Donald Trump released a formal statement declaring he has no Russian ties and was simply elected due to his popularity alone, in what is being interpreted as one of the best April Fools day jokes ever played out by an American President.

The prank follows an unprecedented wave of high-jinks and shenanigans emanating from the White House in recent weeks which saw members of the executive repeatedly prank the Department of Justice by claiming they had not spoken with any Russian representatives, before later yelling “psych” and quitting their jobs when it was revealed that they had in fact met with figures linked to Putin.

A well known prankster, Mr Trump is renowned for his ability to take a joke further than almost any other person, with recent famous larks including the installation of a climate-denier at the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a woman who wants to shut down public schools as Secretary of Education and his pièce de résistance, hiring a former Exxon Mobil CEO as his Secretary of State after promising to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

Members of the public have reportedly taken the latest pranks on them very well, with many even being reduced to tears due to the White House’s seemingly never-ending stream of comical incompetence.

President Trump later took to twitter declaring any news articles which point out flaws in his government are “fake news”, a statement readers said would be “incredibly worrying” if it weren’t so obviously an attempt at humorously parodying a dictator.