Trump names Arab-American Massad Boulos, family relative, as senior adviser on Middle East
WASHINGTON – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman who is also the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, as a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
Boulos arranged Trump’s campaign efforts to secure the Arab American community’s support in Michigan, through organising dozens of meetings in areas with large Arab American populations who were outraged by Democratic President Joe Biden’s military and financial backing of the Zionist occupation in its war in Gaza and Lebanon.
Consequently, Trump won the majority in the Arab American city of Dearborn Heights on his way to sweeping Michigan and other swing states.
“He has been a longtime proponent of Republican and Conservative values, an asset to my Campaign, and was instrumental in building tremendous new coalitions with the Arab American Community,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Boulos has been in touch with interlocutors across Lebanon’s multipolar political world, according to three sources who spoke to him in recent months.
“Particularly notable is his ability to maintain relations with Hezbollah,” the sources added.
Moreover, Boulos is a friend of Suleiman Frangieh, a Christian ally of Hezbollah and its candidate for Lebanon’s presidency. He is also in touch with the Lebanese Forces Party, a vehemently anti-Hezbollah Christian faction, the sources say, and has ties to independent lawmakers.
“Boulos’ Lebanese political past gives no real indication of a geostrategic or even national vision, but it demonstrates ambition and a set of political allies that will stand out in Trump’s circle like a sore thumb,” said Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century Foundation think tank.
The nomination of Massad Boulos marks the second time that Trump chose a family relative to serve in his administration.
On Saturday, Trump announced he had picked his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s father, real estate mogul Charles Kushner, to serve as U.S. ambassador to France.
