When Jared Kushner met Henry Kissinger in 2016 he prepared a memo for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, distilling the diplomat philosopher’s words into bullet points.

Avoid giving yes or no answers to complex diplomatic suggestions was one of the nuggets. And always try to work out whether the person on the phone holds real power or is just using you to build influence at home.

It was the start of Mr Kushner’s training in diplomacy that this week saw him deliver a breakthrough in the Middle East and a deal that could end the conflict in Gaza.

His use of business acumen to leverage competing interests has silenced critics who once ridiculed his lack of diplomatic experience, and drawn favourable comparison with the statesman he approached for advice nine years earlier.

Mr Kushner and Kissinger kept up a conversation after that first meeting. So it was natural that Time Magazine turned to the 93-year-old veteran of world affairs for a blurb when it added Mr Kushner to its list of 100 most influential people.

Kissinger, who worked for two presidents and advised 10 more, leaned into the master-and-apprentice dynamic.

“As a graduate of Harvard and NYU, he has a broad education; as a businessman, a knowledge of administration,” he said. “All this should help him make a success of his daunting role flying close to the sun.”

Critics sneered, saying the man who once bestrode the globe was damning Mr Kushner with faint praise.

Comparisons soon followed, however.

“Kushner is apprenticing for the role of Trump’s Henry Kissinger,” wrote David Ignatius in the Washington Post. “He’s the secret emissary, the evaluator of talent, the whisperer of confidential advice.”