第226期：贾里德·库什纳：不仅是美国“第一女婿”

想成为我们的主播，欢迎加微信 xdfbook 投稿。 一段美文，一首英文歌，或是一点生活感想，全由你做主。 《贾里德·库什纳：不仅是美国“第一女婿”》 How Jared Kushner Won Trump the White House It’s been one week since Donald Trump pulled off the biggest upset in modern political history, and his headquarters at Trump Tower in New York City is a 58-story, onyx1)-glassed lightning rod. Barricades, TV trucks and protesters frame a fortified Fifth Avenue. Armies of journalists and selfie-seeking tourists stalk Trump Tower’s pink marble lobby, hoping to snap the next political power player who steps into view. Twenty-six floors up, the president-elect is choosing his Cabinet. Winners will emerge shortly. The most compelling figure, however, wasn’t in Trump Tower. Jared Kushner was three blocks south, high up in his own skyscraper, where he oversees his family’s Kushner Companies real estate empire. Trump’s son-in-law, dressed in an impeccably2) tailored gray suit, sitting on a brown leather couch in his impeccably neat office, displays the impeccably polite manners that won the 35-year-old a dizzying number of influential friends even before he had gained the ear, and trust, of the new leader of the free world. A year ago he had zero experience in politics and about as much interest in it. Suddenly he sits at its global center. Running the Trump Campaign Kushner almost never speaks publicly, but interviews with him and a dozen people around him and the Trump camp lead to an inescapable fact: The quiet, enigmatic young mogul delivered the presidency to the most fame-hungry, bombastic candidate in American history. “Jared Kushner is the biggest surprise of the 2016 election,” says Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google. “Best I can tell, he actually ran the campaign and did it with essentially no resources.” No resources at the beginning, perhaps. Underfunded3) throughout, for sure. But by running the Trump campaign—notably, its secret data operation—like a Silicon Valley startup, Kushner eventually tipped the states that swung the election4). And he did so in manner that will change the way future elections will be won and lost. President Obama had unprecedented success in targeting, organizing and motivating voters. But a lot has changed in eight years. Specifically social media. Clinton did borrow from Obama’s playbook5) but also leaned on traditional media. The Trump campaign, meanwhile, delved into message tailoring, sentiment manipulation and machine learning. The traditional campaign is dead, another victim of the unfiltered democracy of the Web—and Kushner, more than anyone not named Donald Trump, killed it. That achievement, coupled with the personal trust Trump has in him, uniquely positions Kushner to be a power broker6) of the highest order for at least four years. “Every president I’ve ever known has one or two people he intuitively and structurally trusts,” says former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, “I think Jared might be that person.” Jared Kushner’s ascent from Ivanka Trump’s little-known husband to Donald Trump’s campaign savior happened gradually. In the early days of the scrappy7) campaign, it was all hands on deck8), with Kushner helping research policy positions on tax and trade. But as the campaign gained steam9), other players began using him as a trusted conduit10) to an erratic11) candidate. “I helped facilitate a lot of relationships that wouldn’t have happened otherwise,” Kushner says, adding that people felt safe speaking with him, without risk of leaks. Kushner’s role expanded as the Trump ticket gained traction—so did his enthusiasm. Kushner went all-in with Trump last November after seeing his father-in-law pack12) a raucous13) arena in Springfield, Illinois, on a Monday night. “People really saw hope in his message,” he says. “They wanted the things that wouldn’t have been obvious to a lot of people I would meet in the New York media world or the Upper East Side14).” And so this Harvard-educated child of privilege put on a bright-red Make American Great Again hat and rolled up his sleeves. Just as Trump’s unorthodox style allowed him to win the Republican nomination, Kushner’s lack of political experience became an advantage. Unschooled in traditional campaigning, he was able to look at the business of politics the way so many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have sized up other bloated industries. “Jared understood the online world in a way the traditional media folks didn’t. He managed to assemble a presidential campaign on a shoestring15) using new technology and won. That’s a big deal,” says Schmidt, the Google billionaire. “Remember all those articles about how they had no money, no people, organizational structure? Well, they won, and Jared ran it.” ……………… 距离唐纳德·特朗普实现现代政治历史上最大的反转已经一周之久了(编注：英文原文发表于2016年11月22日)。其总部特朗普大厦位于纽约市，是一座高58层、外墙由缟玛瑙玻璃装饰的建筑，就像一根避雷针。路障、电视采访车以及抗议者聚集在戒备森严的第五大道外围。各路的新闻工作者和沉迷于自拍的游客出没在特朗普大厦粉红色的大理石大厅，只等这位新任政治权力玩家一露面，就拍下其身影。而在楼上的26层，这位候任总统正在决定他的内阁人选。 入选名单不久便会公布。然而，最引人注目的人物并不在特朗普大厦内。贾里德·库什纳在此处以南三个街区之外，高坐于自己的摩天大楼中，从那里他可以俯视自家库什纳集团的房地产帝国。特朗普的这位女婿穿着无可挑剔的定制灰色西装，坐在自己整洁得无可挑剔的办公室里的棕色皮沙发上，举手投足温文尔雅，无可挑剔。即使在他还未获得这个自由世界新领导人的赏识和信任之前，这个35岁的年轻人就凭借其优雅风度结交了大量举足轻重的朋友。一年前，他还从未涉足政治领域，对其也毫无兴趣。一夜之间，他便置身于全球政治的中心位置。 掌舵特朗普竞选 库什纳几乎未曾公开发表过演说，但对他的采访以及对他身边及特朗普阵营十几个人的采访无不表明这样一个事实：这位内敛而神秘的年轻巨亨为美国历史上最追求名望、夸夸其谈的候选人赢得了总统之位。 谷歌前CEO埃里克·施密特表示：“贾里德·库什纳是2016年大选中最大的惊喜。就我知道的情况看，他实际负责此次竞选，并且基本上没什么资源。” 一开始可能真的没什么资源。整个竞选过程中资金肯定也不充足。但以运作硅谷新公司的方式来运作特朗普的竞选，尤其是其秘密的数据运作，库什纳最终撬动了那些摇摆州。而他的做法将改变未来决定总统选举胜负的方式。奥巴马总统曾在对其选民的确定、组织和动员方面取得过空前的成功。但八年来许多事情都发生了变化，尤其是社交媒体。希拉里阵营确实借鉴了奥巴马的战略经验，但还是依赖于传统媒体。与此同时，特朗普阵营则细致研究信息定制、情感操控和机器学习。传统的竞选已经死了，成为泥沙俱下的网络民主的又一个牺牲品——对于其死亡，库什纳比唐纳德·特朗普之外的其他任何人都发挥了更大的作用。 这样的成就，加上特朗普个人对其的信任，使得库什纳在接下来至少四年内，成为唯一的最高级别的权力经纪人。美国前国务卿亨利·基辛格说：“据我所知，每位总统在体制内都有一两位本能上非常信任的人。我觉得贾里德很可能就是这样的人。” 贾里德·库什纳从伊万卡·特朗普默默无闻的丈夫擢升为唐纳德·特朗普竞选的救星，这经历了一个循序渐进的过程。刚开始的时候竞选杂乱无章，所有人都上阵，库什纳协助研究在税收和贸易问题上应采取什么样的政策立场。但是随着竞选声势越来越大，竞选团队其他人开始将他当作可信任的渠道，来和那位不按常理出牌的候选人进行沟通。库什纳说：“我协助建立了许多关系，这些关系原本不可能建立。”他还表示，人们和他交谈很放心，不用担心谈话会被泄露。 随着特朗普选票的增多，库什纳所起的作用也愈发重要，他的热情也随之高涨。2015年11月一个星期一的夜晚，他看到岳父在伊利诺伊州斯普林菲尔德市一个竞选集会场所挥斥方遒，全场挤满的人为之呐喊，之后便全身心投入到竞选当中。他说：“人们在他的演讲中真正看到了希望。他们想要的那些东西，都是我在纽约的媒体圈子和上东区遇到的很多人觉察不到的。”于是，这位哈佛出身的权贵公子戴上印有“让美国再次伟大”的大红色帽子，撸起袖子准备大干一场。 特朗普离经叛道的风格为他赢得了共和党的提名，同样，库什纳在政治领域的一片空白也成了一个优势。他没有学习过传统的竞选技巧，反倒能以许多硅谷的企业家看待过剩产业的眼光来看待政治事务。 谷歌前总裁、亿万富翁施密特说：“贾里德对网络世界的理解与传统媒体人士完全不同。他利用新技术，没花多少钱就组织起了一场总统竞选，并赢取了胜利。这是件了不起的事。还记得很多报道都说过他们如何缺钱，如何缺人，如何缺乏组织架构吗？可是，他们赢了，掌舵人就是贾里德。” ………… 文章摘自：《新东方英语》杂志2017年6月号