When Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump decided to take senior positions in the White House that they were completely unqualified for, they reportedly believed doing so would be the first step in a series of steps that would one day result in them saying, O.K., Ivanka will run for president now, and then Jared will do it in eight years. Fifteen months later, things haven’t exactly followed the trajectory the couple had in mind, with Jared, we assume, eating his lunch in a men’s-room stall, shaking his fists and asking Why, god, why? in between bites and tears.

In addition to accomplishing none of the goals on his to-do list—solving the opioid crisis, bringing peace to the Middle East, “re-inventing the entire government,” etc.— regulators have requested information from several banks “about their relationships with Jared Kushner and his finances”; his security clearance was downgraded; at least four countries have allegedly discussed ways to manipulate him “by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties, and lack of foreign-policy experience”; his P.R. guru quit; and Brooklyn prosecutors have subpoenaed Kushner Cos. concerning slumlord-esque tactics employed by the company during a three year-period in which he was C.E.O. Yet another thing that’s likely keeping the First Son-in-Law up at night is the fact that come February 2019, his family owes the entire $1.2 billion balance of its mortgage on 666 Fifth Avenue, the tower a young Jared bought on the eve of the financial crisis, which lost $25 million last year. That situation, naturally, has led some people to write headlines such as, “Jared Kushner’s Family Is Screwed, and It‘s All Boy Wonder’s Fault,” pointing out that the Boy Prince of New Jersey can’t even succeed at jobs that are literally handed to him. And Charlie Kushner has had enough.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Jared’s dad claimed that if anyone deserves the blame for the epic debacle that is 666 Fifth, it’s him, not Jared. Claiming that Jared had expressed reservations about buying the office tower, the senior Kushner told Cristina Alesci, “I pushed Jared to do the deal.” That deal, as we now know, has completely blown up in Kushner Cos.’ face. In addition to the looming 2019 deadline, the Kushners’ partner in the project, Vornado Realty Trust, is said to be nearing a deal to sell its stake, with chairman Steven Roth saying the building “would be worth a lot more if it was just dirt.” Roth was also said to nix the Kushners’ Hail Mary idea to raze the building and build a gleaming, Zaha Hadid-designed tower in its place, which would have required a $4 billion construction loan—money that the Kushners, despite crisscrossing the globe, failed to raise. (Speaking of which, according to Charlie, that meeting he took with the Qatari finance minister, which was reportedly in an effort to drum up funds for the 666 project, and which preceded the Trump administration’s decision to support a blockade of the country after Chuck was turned down? The elder Kushner says he only accepted the invitation “out of respect” for the Qataris, and that he went to the meeting to tell them there was no way ”we could do business.”)

While the Kushner patriarch, who remained close with Jared even while doing two years in prison—for, among other things, setting his brother-in-law up with a prostitute, taping it, and sending it to his sister for cooperating with a government investigation—says he understood the White House job would be tough on his son, he underestimated the “opposition” the administration would face. Lil’ Jared may be in hell right now, but he need only look down at the wallet his father made him while doing time for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering to know that Daddy Kushner is pulling for him. And hopefully, should the roles one day reverse, and Jared find himself behind bars, he’ll make his father something nice, too.