The Trump White House has, among other things, been a case study in nepotism, with The Donald's friends and relatives getting plum roles with little to no qualification. Consider Dan Scavino, the president's one-time golf caddy, who went on to become general manager of one of Trump's gold clubs and then the director of social media for his 2016 presidential campaign. Scavino is now Trump's longest-serving aide, since Hope Hicks left her post as White House communications director on Tuesday.

Hicks started her rise in the Trumposphere by working for the president's daughter Ivanka. Now Hicks is gone—the third Trump White House communications director to resign in just over a year—and it looks like Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner could be the next to go.

No one is quite sure precisely what roles the couple play in the administration (he's allegedly a diplomat of some sort, and she is nebulously described as a "senior adviser"), but Kushner's inability to get top-level security clearance has been a hot topic lately, with WH Chief of Staff John Kelly seemingly determined to prevent him from ever getting it. There's also the fact that special counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating Kushner for a number of reasons, including the question of whether the president's son-in-law has been using his position to drum up business for his family's real-estate company.

And now, according to the New York Times, the president is starting to see Kushner as a liability that he doesn't need. Yesterday, the Times reported:

Privately, some aides have expressed frustration that Mr. Kushner and his wife, the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, have remained at the White House, despite Mr. Trump at times saying they never should have come to the White House and should leave. Yet aides also noted that Mr. Trump has told the couple that they should keep serving in their roles, even as he has privately asked Mr. Kelly for his help in moving them out.

As for Ivanka, as the Straight has previously reported, her business dealings have come under FBI scrutiny, according to unnamed sources cited by CNN. That probe includes the financing of Trump International Hotel & Tower in Vancouver.

"In the case of Vancouver, it's not clear why investigators are examining this particular deal," CNN stated. "The timing of the deal—as one of the few Trump-branded properties to open since Trump took office—could be of interest. The flow of foreign money, either from the developer or international condo buyers, could also be sparking scrutiny."

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial stating that Kushner and Ivanka Trump should consider leaving their White House posts.

"Hiring family for high-profile jobs is always high political risk," the WSJ editorial board wrote. "Their loyalty can be an asset, but they inevitably become high-profile political targets. Above all they are hard to fire even when they become liabilities."

In other words, nepotism is sometimes a really, really bad guiding principle for hiring people to help you run a country. Here's hoping that, however unlikely it may seem, Donald Trump reads the Wall Street Journal.