Junior and Jared at each other's throats

After a 2020 campaign rollout that included weak polls and a pair of disastrous network interviews, Donald Trump needed some good news. He got some Tuesday when his campaign and the Republican National Committee announced they had raised $105 million in the second quarter, a number that far surpassed where Barack Obama and the DNC were at this point in Obama’s reelection bid. The massive fund-raising haul, a former West Wing official told me, “showed money isn’t going to be a problem.”

What is a problem for the campaign, though, is the escalating cold war between Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. for control of the reelection, five sources close to the White House told me in recent days. Brad Parscale is the nominal campaign manager—but Jared and Don Jr., who both have good relationships with Parscale, are jockeying to be the ultimate decision makers. “Jared wants to take control of the campaign,” a person close to Don Jr. told me. “It’s about power,” the former West Wing official said. One place the fight is playing out is over fund-raising. According to sources, Kushner has been seeking to marginalize Don Jr.’s close friend Tommy Hicks Jr., who serves as co-chairman of the RNC. According to a source, Jared has told RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel not to be in touch with Hicks.

“None of this is true,” Ronna McDaniel replied in an email. “The president’s family, the campaign and RNC couldn’t be working any better together. This is a total team effort to re-elect the president and Tommy is an integral part of it.” In an email, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said: “This is completely false. Don Jr. and Jared are very close, and it’s pretty clear a ‘source’ who won’t even go on the record, is trying to stir up trouble where none exists.”

The tensions between Don Jr. and Kushner amplified beneath the glare of the Mueller investigation. “Don Jr. and Jared really dislike each other,” a Republican close to the White House told me. According to the source, Don Jr. has told people he suspected Kushner was behind the initial leak of Don Jr.’s infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. “Don was telling people Jared leaked it to hurt him. No one could figure out how it leaked. It was a closely guarded secret.” The source said Kushner has also told foreign dignitaries to steer clear of Don Jr. “Jared has told foreign people not to work through Don Jr. And Jared has said it’s on orders from the president,” the source said.

Paranoia about Kushner has set in among Don Jr.’s allies. According to one person close to Don Jr., his advisers were alarmed by Don Jr.’s now-deleted tweet questioning Senator Kamala Harris’s race. They worried Kushner would push the scandal to damage Don Jr. “We need to clean this up,” one adviser emailed another shortly after Don Jr. sent the tweet, according to the person, who was briefed on the exchange. “Don doesn’t want to give Jared any excuses to delegitimize him,” the person told me.