Josh Kushner, the Democratic venture capitalist and brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, is joining Bob Iger in the $12.5 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers.
A Kushner is coming to Los Angeles, and the name alone is likely to attract attention.
Josh Kushner, the 41-year-old founder of Thrive Capital, and Bob Iger, the former Disney chief executive, are acquiring Mark Walter’s controlling stake in the Los Angeles Lakers at a valuation of $12.5 billion, according to people familiar with the deal.
The price would make the Lakers the most valuable professional sports franchise ever sold.
It also puts one of the most recognizable surnames in American politics into the ownership of one of the country’s most recognizable sports teams.
But there is an important distinction:
Josh Kushner is not Jared Kushner.
Josh is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a senior adviser during Trump’s first administration. But the brothers have publicly occupied very different political worlds.
Josh Kushner has identified as a Democrat. In 2016, a spokesman said he would not vote for Trump. He has described “liberal values” as having guided his life and attended the Women’s March in Washington in January 2017, shortly after Trump’s inauguration.
Jared Kushner, by contrast, became one of Trump’s closest advisers during the president’s first term. He has no official role in the current Trump administration.
There is no indication that Jared Kushner is involved in the Lakers transaction.
The distinction could nevertheless become part of the conversation around the team. The Lakers are not simply another professional sports franchise in Los Angeles. They are a civic institution, with an ownership that carries significance well beyond basketball.
For Josh Kushner, the Lakers would represent a dramatic expansion of a business career built primarily around venture capital, technology and health care.
Who is Josh Kushner?
Kushner founded Thrive Capital, one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the technology industry. His investments have included Instagram, Spotify, Patreon, Robinhood, OpenAI and A24.
He is also a co-founder and vice chairman of Oscar Health.
Kushner has previous experience in professional sports. He held a minority stake in the Memphis Grizzlies and acquired a stake of less than 5% in the Miami Heat last year.
His wife, model Karlie Kloss, holds a limited partnership stake in the WNBA’s New York Liberty.
The Lakers would be a considerably larger investment.
Kushner and Iger had reportedly been exploring the possibility of acquiring an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas before turning their attention to the Lakers.
Iger brings a different kind of Los Angeles connection. He led Disney through much of its transformation into a global entertainment company and remains one of Hollywood’s most prominent executives.
He stepped down from his second stint as Disney’s chief executive in March and subsequently took an advisory role at Thrive Capital.
The partnership therefore brings together venture capital, technology and Hollywood experience around one of the world’s best-known sports brands.
The Lakers are changing hands again
The deal would give the Lakers another new controlling owner only about 14 months after Walter acquired his stake from the Buss family.
Walter purchased control of the franchise in October 2025 at a valuation of roughly $10 billion, at the time a record price for a sports franchise.
The Lakers had been controlled by the Buss family since 1979, when Dr. Jerry Buss bought the team from Jack Kent Cooke.
Under the Buss family, the Lakers won 12 of their 17 championships, second only to the Boston Celtics’ 18 titles.
Walter will continue to own the Los Angeles Dodgers, the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and Premier League club Chelsea. Those teams are not part of the Lakers transaction.
In a statement, Walter described owning the Lakers as “one of the great honors” of his life and said the team belongs to Los Angeles.
Kushner and Iger said they intend to build on the foundation established by Jerry and Jeanie Buss, compete at the highest level and remain committed to the team, its fans and the city.
The purchase is subject to Thrive’s due diligence and NBA approval.
A different kind of Kushner
The Lakers deal puts Josh Kushner in a position that few people with his family name would enter without political questions following them.
His brother Jared became one of the most recognizable members of Trump’s inner circle. He married Ivanka Trump and served as a senior adviser in the White House, where he worked on issues including Middle East policy and criminal justice.
Josh took a different path.
He built Thrive Capital into a major technology investor and largely kept his political identity separate from his brother’s.
That does not mean the family connection is irrelevant. The Kushner name is now attached to one of Los Angeles’ most prominent institutions at a time when Donald Trump’s politics remain deeply consequential in California and nationally.
But there is a difference between being a Kushner and being Jared Kushner.
Josh’s public political record points in the opposite direction.
Whether that distinction matters to Lakers fans is likely to depend less on the ownership transaction itself than on what happens next.
For now, the facts are relatively straightforward: a Democrat is buying the Lakers, and his brother is the former Trump White House adviser.
The same family name connects them.
Their politics do not.
