Kushner's $1 billion stake in an Israeli firm invested in arms makers
$1B+ stake; $340M+ realized
CNN reported that Affinity held the largest stake in Phoenix Financial, an Israeli group with investments in military suppliers including Elbit, while Kushner negotiated over Gaza. Affinity made more than $340M selling a quarter of the stake in July 2026.
Their response: Kushner's attorney: “any suggestion that Jared's diplomatic work influenced Phoenix's investments… is incorrect.”
Sources: CNN
Two more paid-access events for his memecoin’s top holders: Mar-a-Lago in April, his D.C. club in November
Top 297 holders invited; the coin is down 97%
The company behind the $TRUMP memecoin has again tied access to the president to holdings of the coin. On April 25, 2026 the top 297 holders attended a gala at Mar-a-Lago and the top 29 a VIP reception with Trump, Forbes reported; a watchdog found holders could earn ranking points by buying Trump watches, fragrances and sneakers. On Sept. 30 the company opened a new contest: the top 185 holders get a Nov. 22 dinner at Trump National Golf Club near Washington with Trump as featured speaker, the top 29 a VIP reception and the top four a gold Trump watch. The coin traded at $2.06, down 97% from its high, and nearly a million buyers had reportedly lost $3.81 billion through June, while his own filing shows $635 million in memecoin royalties for 2025.
Their response: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt, after the first such dinner in 2025, said Trump is “abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws that are applicable to the president”. Ethics lawyer Richard Painter called the April event “a dangerous conflict of interest”.
Sources: Forbes (Oct. 1, 2026) · The Guardian (April 23, 2026) · CREW (April 22, 2026) · CNBC (June 30, 2026) · OGE Form 278e, Donald J. Trump, annual report for 2025 (received June 29, 2026)
Putin asked Trump’s envoys to close a Lukoil sale to a group tied to their own business partners
$20B: Lukoil’s own valuation of the assets; price not disclosed
The New York Times reported on Oct. 3, 2026, citing eight people, that the Ukraine peace talks now include a sale of sanctioned Lukoil’s foreign oil fields, refineries and gas stations to a group led by Trump donor Todd Boehly. The group includes an Abu Dhabi fund overseen by Sheikh Tahnoon, whose entities own nearly half of the Trump and Witkoff families’ crypto firm and back Jared Kushner’s investment firm, and Qatar’s Al-Khayyat brothers, partners of Kushner and Ivanka Trump on an Albanian resort. Putin raised the sale with Steve Witkoff and Kushner at the Kremlin on Sept. 5, and they said they would work on it. Nothing is signed: the sale needs Treasury and Kremlin approval, the price is not public, and the Times found no indication that the two envoys themselves stand to profit.
Their response: A spokeswoman for Witkoff told the Times he “has no conflict of interest and no financial stake in this matter.” A Treasury spokeswoman said its sanctions office “implements foreign policy as determined by the White House.” The White House, Boehly and the Al-Khayyats’ company UCC declined to comment to the Financial Times; Lukoil and the Abu Dhabi fund did not respond. Reuters said the White House, Treasury and Lukoil did not answer outside business hours. No comment from Kushner was found.
Sources: New York Times (Oct. 3, 2026) · New York Times, five takeaways (Oct. 3, 2026) · Financial Times (Sept. 22, 2026) · Reuters, via The Moscow Times (Oct. 3, 2026) · Kyiv Independent (Oct. 4, 2026)
Phoenix owns shares in Israeli arms makers, about $380 million traced by CNN; it does not sell weapons
About $380M in arms-maker shares traced by CNN (six stakes, summed)
Phoenix Financial is an insurer, pension and asset manager, not a weapons seller, and Affinity holds no direct stake in any arms maker, CNN found. The stakes CNN could trace in Phoenix’s Israeli filings: at least $265 million in Elbit Systems (about 0.6% of Elbit, held for more than a decade), more than $68 million in drone-camera maker Next Vision, at least $40 million in artillery-fuze maker Reshef, more than 10% of tank-parts maker Ashot Ashkelon, $4 million in Boeing, $2.5 million in Caterpillar and $524,524 in Israel Shipyards. The six stakes with a stated value total roughly $380 million, against about $170 billion that Forbes says Phoenix manages; CNN stressed the filings show “only a fraction” of Phoenix’s holdings. The Reshef and Ashot stakes were bought after Affinity became the largest shareholder.
Their response: Kushner’s attorney to CNN: he has “never participated in or directed Phoenix’s decisions” and had “no involvement in the decision to purchase, hold or sell any of the nine companies”. A Phoenix spokesperson said the firm is “regulated” and that “shareholder value is derived primarily from operating performance rather than investment returns.” CNN: it “found no indication that Kushner’s actions as a diplomat directly affected the investments reviewed.”
Sources: CNN investigation (Oct. 1, 2026) · Forbes (Sept. 16, 2025)
Housing regulator’s acting watchdog was removed in 2025; in 2026 the agency cut the watchdog’s budget 64%
Watchdog budget cut from $55M to $20M
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte made criminal referrals against Letitia James, Fed governor Lisa Cook and Sen. Adam Schiff. In November 2025 the agency’s acting inspector general, Joe Allen, was removed; Reuters reported it followed his sharing information with the prosecutors handling the James case and his plan to tell Congress the agency was not cooperating with his investigators. On Sept. 30, 2026 the agency cut the inspector general’s budget from the $55 million in the president’s own request to $20 million. The official now running the office told Congress that would mean losing 70% to 80% of staff and “the discontinuance of essentially all criminal investigations”.
Their response: FHFA said a review found the office was “an extraordinary budgetary outlier among its peer OIGs” and that it “fully supports the independence and mission of the Office of Inspector General.” Democratic leaders called for Pulte to resign. Neither the agency nor the White House answered questions in 2025 about the acting inspector general’s removal.
Sources: FHFA Office of Inspector General letter to Congress (Sept. 30, 2026) · FHFA news release (Sept. 30, 2026) · Government Executive (Oct. 2, 2026) · Government Executive (Nov. 7, 2025)
ProPublica count: immigration agents have held 506 U.S. citizens since January 2025
506 citizens held, Jan. 2025 to Sept. 2026 (ProPublica count)
A ProPublica database published Oct. 6, 2026 identifies 506 U.S. citizens held against their will by immigration agents between January 2025 and September 2026. It counts only warrantless detentions away from airports and the border, needs at least two sources per incident, and calls itself an undercount. It includes more than 100 people held after agents questioned their citizenship, at least 70 children and teens, 36 people held a day or more with no call to family or a lawyer, and about a dozen deported. ProPublica’s first count, in October 2025, was more than 170.
Their response: DHS statement to ProPublica (2026): “DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted. We do our due diligence,” adding that anyone who obstructs agents “will of course face consequences which include arrest.” Of its Chicago surge DHS said there were “no administrative arrests of U.S. citizens”; ProPublica found more than 120 citizens detained in Illinois in that period. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin (October 2025): “We don’t arrest US citizens for immigration enforcement.”
Sources: ProPublica, “Federal Agents Have Detained More Than 500 American Citizens” (Oct. 6, 2026) · ProPublica, “Immigration Agents Have Held More Than 170 Americans Against Their Will” (Oct. 16, 2025)