Let’s agree that one of the finest qualities of Jared Kushner is his tailoring. The fit is so good. Even with bespoke work, that’s hard to achieve. And his tall and slim form points to someone who stays fit and watches his SmartPoints. But things seem to go downhill from there. I’ve never met the man, so apply all due skepticism, but few in the White House seem to like him much, nor do former colleagues. Even Donald Trump, the father of Kushner’s wife, seems to have recently cooled a bit on his son-in-law, according to The New York Times. All of this is coming to a head in the wake of a Washington Post report that Kushner proposed setting up a secret line of communication between Moscow and the Trump transition team last December, possibly using Russian facilities at which to do it. Meanwhile, Kushner’s enemies, sensing vulnerability and opportunity, are unsheathing their blades and saying unkind things about their rival.

Like everything else involving the Trump White House, this is all a bit dizzying. For the first few months of the presidency, Kushner got more of a pass from journalists than other members of Trumpland. In part, this was because Kushner is savvy about how he’s photographed and clever about remaining out of sight. More important, people believed that Kushner had a “moderating” effect on his father-in-law, whispering sweet Merkelisms in his ears, and this made him more palatable to the anti-Trump world, which is to say most of Washington and New York. Then came the news that Kushner had been among those pushing hardest for Trump to fire F.B.I. director James Comey and to fight back hard against the appointment of a special counsel to look into potential Russia links between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Maybe friends of Comey have taken their revenge.

Jared has indicated that he and Ivanka Trump are committed to reviewing every six months whether to stay in Washington, and the half-year mark approaches. Despite a reputation for being “indispensable” to Trump, a notion aided by Kushner’s deft self-promotion, Kushner’s primary virtue appears to be that he can be trusted to place the interests of his father-in-law ahead of his own, at least in the big picture. Unlike any other staffer, he has to keep showing up for the Trump family Thanksgiving dinner.

That’s nice for Trump to have, but it’s not crucial. So maybe Jared will just quit and move back to New York with Ivanka. He could return to the private sector and juggle federal investigations part-time. But how should we feel about all of this? Good riddance to Jared, if he splits? Let’s consider the trade-offs.

On the plus side, he’s unlikely to be missed. Soft-spoken though he may be, he has often used his silence for bad. He has a pattern of charging headlong into things, like building purchases, even when they are unwise. When he bought The New York Observer a decade ago, he presided over its gutting and used it to call in hit pieces on enemies. He also reportedly alienated numerous employees and did things like welsh on a bonus payment deal for one employee, allegedly telling her to “take one for the team.” His reputation in the White House appears to be one of arrogance and overconfidence, and rather than keep his head down with the proper humility of one who is in over his head and there by the grace of nepotism, he seems to hold it all the higher.