This is really trashy journalism.

Over the past decade, Jared Kushner’s family company has spent billions of dollars buying real estate. His personal stock investments have soared. His net worth has quintupled to almost $324 million.

And yet, for several years running, Mr. Kushner — President Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser — appears to have paid almost no federal income taxes, according to confidential financial documents reviewed by The New York Times.

His low tax bills are the result of a common tax-minimizing maneuver that, year after year, generated millions of dollars in losses for Mr. Kushner, according to the documents. But the losses were only on paper — Mr. Kushner and his company did not appear to actually lose any money. The losses were driven by depreciation, a tax benefit that lets real estate investors deduct a portion of the cost of their buildings from their taxable income every year.

[…]

Nothing in the documents suggests Mr. Kushner or his company broke the law. A spokesman for Mr. Kushner’s lawyer said that Mr. Kushner “paid all taxes due.”

So the story is that Jared Kushner followed the law to grow his business and pay his taxes. That’s it.

So why did the New York Times feel the need to write the story? Why did they write the headline as, “Kushner Paid No Federal Income Tax for Years, Documents Suggest”? Because they are intentionally stoking one of the basest emotions – jealousy. This isn’t journalism. It’s voyeurism. 

Jared Kushner is a man who followed the law to minimize his taxes. Don’t we all do that?