Palantalk in Review
On today’s Palantalk, Nick Paro and Shane Yirak are joined by our special guest, Lev Parnas, for one of our clearest dissections of geopolitics. It’s a dive into how shadow diplomacy operates when our formal democratic institutions are bypassed in favor of private actors, private capital, and personal loyalty networks.
Shadow diplomacy is not simply “back-channel communication.” It is a parallel system of power where foreign policy is executed by individuals with no democratic mandate, no legal authority, and no obligation to our national interest.
Lev helps draw a sharp distinction between traditional intelligence backchannels — still constrained by institutional guardrails — and the Trump-era model, where loyalty to a single individual replaces allegiance to the state. In this framework, diplomacy becomes transactional, personal, and extractive — it’s corruption on a global scale. Outcomes are measured not in stability or peace, but in leverage, assets, and cash flow.
In the center of a lot of this shadow diplomacy sits Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and husband to Ivanka Trump. Jared’s role is not based on state-approved interests, it’s as a facilitator of capital movement. Kushner’s function is consistently described as finding ways to move sanctioned, foreign, or politically toxic money into acceptable channels — usually relying on real estate, sovereign wealth funds, or private equity structures — while converting geopolitical concessions into private gain. For a deeper look into Kushner, take a look through Shane’s first two investigative articles, The Kushner Files, part 1 and part 2.
We hit on a key insight through Shane’s theory on “real estate diplomacy”, based on high-stakes New York property deals: apply pressure, create artificial scarcity, exploit imbalance, and treat every grievance as negotiable for a price. Shane’s theory offers a framework which succinctly explains the otherwise incoherent nature of Trump-aligned foreign engagements starting in the Middle East — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar — and within Eurasia — Ukraine and Russia.
Shane and Lev quickly dismantle the myth that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner ever “stepped away” from power. Based on Lev’s firsthand experiences — Ivanka is, and has always been, the true final authority within their family, with Jared acting as the public operator. The result is a family-run shadow state that treats U.S. diplomacy as an extension of private enterprise.
Ukraine is our clearest example. Rather than viewing recent meetings as peace efforts, we frame them as pressure campaigns designed to force asset concessions, particularly around strategic resources — lithium and rare earth minerals — where Kushner’s presence signals an attempt to monetize conflict rather than resolve it.
We are quick to reject the idea that this type of diplomacy represents strength — emphasizing that operating this openly is a sign of desperation, not confidence. This all points to dwindling leverage and increasing risk of exposure.
Authoritarians make mistakes when they rush and assume too much confidence — this takeover is no different. The execution is sloppy, the criminality is blatant, and the evidence is available if you’re willing to keep asking questions.
We close on a unifying message: truth is not partisan.
Shadow diplomacy thrives only when normalized — naming it, documenting it, and refusing to accept it as routine is the first step toward accountability.
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Thank you Melissa Corrigan, she/her, Rachel @ This Woman Votes, Beth Cruz, Zev Shalev, This Will Hold, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas, Nick Paro, and Shane Yirak! Join me for my next live video in the app.
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