(CNN) If you needed one clear example of the fundamental flaws of Donald Trump's presidency, this new reporting out of The New York Times would do the trick nicely: The President reportedly ordered his then-chief of staff John Kelly to secure a top-secret security clearance for his son-in-law Jared Kushner, ignoring the objections of the intelligence community and of Kelly himself.

"It is not known precisely what factors led to the problems with Mr. Kushner's security clearance," read the Times report. "Officials had raised questions about his own and his family's real estate business's ties to foreign governments and investors, and about initially unreported contacts he had with foreigners. The issue also generated criticism of Mr. Trump for having two family members serve in official capacities in the West Wing."

Stop and think about this for a second: The President of the United States overrode concerns expressed, according to The New York Times, by intelligence officials, his chief of staff and his White House counsel, to push for a top-secret security clearance for his son-in-law, who, not for nothing, he had endowed with such a broad portfolio that Kushner was referred to as the "Secretary of Everything" in the early days of Trump's White House.

That Trump would pull such a power move -- which is legal, yes, but ethically dicey -- speaks to his commitment to nepotism, a trait that has always defined his life in and out of politics. Trump has few close friends or associates, choosing to surround himself with his offspring -- with a handful of "yes" men and hangers-on liberally sprinkled in.

Trump's closest advisers in the Trump Organization were his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and his daughter, Ivanka. (Eric and Don now run the day-to-day operations of the company with their father in the White House.) In the 2016 campaign, his three eldest children were again his inner circle, along with Ivanka's husband, Kushner. (Remember that at that meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer in June 2016, only three members of the Trump campaign were present: Trump Jr., Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort.)

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