Jared Kushner, Trump Adviser: Administration Can't Fill jobs, So Ivanka's Husband Takes Them All

Nearly three months into the Donald Trump presidency, nearly half the top jobs in the State Department remained vacant. The administration hasn't nominated a deputy secretary to serve under Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, nor has it nominated a deputy secretary for the departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Labor and the Interior. Of 553 key positions requiring senate confirmation, 486 of them do not yet have a nominee, according to the Partnership for Public Service, which tracks political appointees.

While key jobs go unfilled, Jared Kushner's list of responsibilities continues to grow.

Read: What Does Jared Kushner Do? Trump's Son-In-Law Sets Up Meetings With China

The 36-year-old real estate developer, and son-in-law to President Trump, has a simple enough-sounding official job title: senior White House adviser. But unofficially, Kushner has many jobs in the administration, with responsibilities across the domestic and foreign policy spheres, despite having no previous government experience outside of an internship with the Manhattan District Attorney.

After Trump won the presidential election in November, he announced Kushner would be in charge of resolving one of the most intractable diplomatic problems of the 20th century: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trump said Kushner "knows the region, knows the people, knows the players." But the Guardian reported Kushner's interactions with Israeli officials before the campaign seemed to be limited to meeting the mayor of Jerusalem recently and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he was a child. On the eve of his inauguration, Trump told Kushner in front of a VIP gala: "If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can."

Since then, Kushner's foreign policy role has grown, as has the sphere of his influence. In February, the Washington Post called him "almost a shadow secretary of state," after reporting about back-channel diplomacy Kushner performed with Mexican officials. Kushner served a similar role in arranging a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It also seemed that Trump has added military responsibilities to Kushner's foreign policy portfolio. Kushner traveled this week to Iraq with Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and met with the Iraqi prime minister to discuss the elimination of ISIS and the training and arming of the Iraqi forces.

But while solving multiple conflicts in the Middle East might seem like enough responsibility for any man, Trump said his son-in-law can also help foster the future of America. Last week, Trump announced the formation of the White House Office of American Innovation, led by Kushner, which would "make recommendations to the president on policies and plans that improve government operations and services, improve the quality of life for Americans now and in the future, and spur job creation," according to a Presidential memo. The next day, the White House announced Kushner's new office would also work with a commission chaired by Chris Christie to solve the U.S. opioid crisis.

Not everyone in the administration has been happy with Kushner's power in the White House, which many view as having been obtained through marriage, not experience. Politico quoted one senior administration official who joked Kushner is "saving the government and the Middle East at the same time."

So how does Kushner, who is just one man, do it all? According to White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, Kushner has a "team that he oversees." But as Amy Davidson pointed out in the New Yorker, Spicer didn't say who was on that team, only that there would be "different people" for "different parts" of Kushner's responsibilities, and failed to actually mention any individual staff member who is responsible for helping Kushner achieve peace in the Middle East, defeat ISIS, solve the opioid epidemic and reform the American government for the future, while also operating diplomatic back channels.

But then again, the administration still has plenty of jobs to fill.