Jared Kushner Criticized For Calling U.S. Citizens The Government’s ‘Customers’

Following a failed travel ban and healthcare bill, President Donald Trump now wants to change how the government works by creating an entirely new government department called the White House Office of American Innovation to privatize some key government functions. And he’s putting his son-in-law Jared Kushner in charge of it.

However, Kushner got off to a bad start when he described American citizens as “customers.”

“We should have excellence in government,” Kushner said in a Sunday interview published in the Washington Post. “The government should be run like a great American company. Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens.”

People are not happy at the comparison, and many have taken to Twitter to helpfully readjust Kushner’s apparently upside down understanding of how government works.

Jared Kushner streamlining it for you- citizens are bosses not customers- expect to be fired soon

— MaryLou Walsh (@tchhistory) March 27, 2017

We are not customers Jared Kushner. If anything we are “shareholders” and right now our stock is going way down. So time for a change. pic.twitter.com/5Mb4gka3Bm

— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) March 27, 2017

Earth to Jared Kushner: US Citizens arent customers, They are your bosses.

— NoChillMood (@ritaag) March 27, 2017

And yeah, Kushner describing citizens as ‘customers’ just underscores how he & Trump view us…as marks.

— Father Guido SarDShK (@ZeddRebel) March 27, 2017

What Kushner misses is that we are not the customers, we are the Executive Board…we have an election oversight over all of them! https://t.co/X2ITl6SMon

— (((Sam Swire))) (@Sam_Swire) March 27, 2017

Our government of, for, and by the people, is NOT a business. We are NOT customers, Mr. Kushner.

— I’llWakeUpNow&Live? (@Selu_Peace) March 27, 2017

Well-run companies profit from their customers. Citizens profit from well-run governments. Jared Kushner doesn’t understand the difference. pic.twitter.com/zILnfZYjRm

— Paul Witham (@pwitham11) March 27, 2017